Big Day

The weekend was kind of boring.  Can you believe it?  We messed around the coach, piddled around the Jeep.  Did not much of anything.  We'd like to thank every serviceman and woman who battled for our freedom, for we appreciate it every day.


Monday all we did was go out for lunch in Sarasota and drive along the shoreline.


Tuesday we worked at Michelle's and met their new dog, Bogey.  He is also a rescue and at 8 months old is already as big as Daisy.  Sorry for the poor quality of picture - had to use our pocket camera.

Here they are together:

Daisy is four years old, and is just tolerating Bogey at the moment.  Usually she plays with all her friends on the block, but this guy is invading her territory and hogging the family.  I'm sure she'll even things out eventually.  At least the kids love him. 

Yesterday we had to get up at 5:30 to get to the hospital at 7:30 for Gary's surgery at 10:30.  Why they need 3 hours, we don't know, because we sat in a waiting room for 2 hours before they called him into Pre-Op.  First into those lovely hospital jammies, blood test, EKG and a million questions.  Then we rolled into Prep meeting with the surgeon, his assistant, two anesthetists, the OR nurse and a couple more people.  Gary's veins are pretty shot from his chemo last year, and nobody could get a line in.  They didn't want to use his port, because in case of an emergency, they would have trouble infusing fluids fast enough (it would have to go 'around a corner').  The nurse put a catheter into his port anyway, and said they would probably find a vein after sedation. 

It was now 11:30 and time to kiss him 'see you later'.  I walked with him as far as I could go, and then it was back to the waiting room.  It was jammed with people, so I went in search of some breakfast at Starbucks and then the Chapel where I hoped it would be peaceful.  It was.

The surgery was supposed to take 2 hours if they could complete it laproscopically, longer if they couldn't.  Two hours went by and on the computer progress screen, he was still in surgery.  Two and a half hours; still in surgery.  Three hours and he was still showing green - in surgery.  I was just getting a little worried, when his surgeon came in through the door and walked over to me.  He was smiling and assured me that everything went exactly according to plan.  I started breathing again. 

I had to wait another 30 minutes before I could see him in Post-Op and then only for 5 minutes.  More waiting until they notified me that he was heading up to his room.  Here he is smiling and all tucked in his beautiful room. 

And I mean nice room:  If you look out his window (behind the fold out guest bed) this is the view:

Out the bathroom window, there's a heliport (with real live action), a pirate ship (to the left) and a draw bridge (ahead).  Can't be bored here!

I finally left at 7:30 for the drive to Michelle's in St. Pete where I was staying the night to attend Lance's school award ceremony and graduation the next morning.  Whew, it was an exhausting day, but my baby is OK and not hurting too much, so I felt he'd be fine sleeping through the night.

It was a hectic evening, but Michelle and I decided to take the two Mastiffs for a walk.  It's funny how other dog walkers cross the street when they see us coming or turn around and go the other way. 

Anyhow, a gentleman and his wife were on the sidewalk and asked if we'd like to see something.  I know that sounds wierd, but what he showed us was amazing.  Climbing an oak tree near his garage was a huge, several hundred-flowered night blooming cereus.  The flowers are short lived, and this species blooms only once a year, for a single night.  This is a painting from Wiki but they were really this beautiful.   If they had a fragrance, you would have been able to smell them for miles. 

Thursday we attended Lance's Graduation and he received an award for creating and writing the weekly newspaper, the Daily Debut, all on his own.  We're so proud!  Then Brian went to work, Michelle took the kids home to change, and I went on to see my honey.  He had had a barium x-ray to see if there were any leaks or problems.  He was A-OK so we gave the Doctors an A+!  Gary was complaining, not of any pain, but just that he was H-U-N-G-R-Y.  So when the Doc came around again, he said OK, you can drink, take out the tube. 

Here's my hungry hubby (tubeless) ready to dig into some orange jello.  Mmmm, just what he wanted!  Actually he'll have to enjoy that for a few more days before he'll be able to eat solid food.

We went for a walk down the hall, Michelle and family came to visit (that was fun), they brought gifts and made cards which we hung on the walls, and then we had some quiet time, before I had my long drive home to Bella.

I turned the water back on and had some dinner and now I'm ready for beddy.  We haven't been apart since November when Gary was again in the hospital because of his blood clot, and I don't like it one bit.  But tomorrow I'm going to baby sit four kids and two large dogs just for a little while before heading back up to the hospital.  I expect Gary will be even better now that he's getting real 'food' and maybe he'll get to come home.  My fingers are crossed. 

P.S. For all your prayers and wishes, my heartfelt gratitude.