Surgery Day

Up at 5am this morning...trying to get something fixed for breakfast before we leave for Lexington at 6:15. Warming up the 4-runner...despite the fact it was parked in the garage all night. It's -3 according to channel 18's website...

We get to St. Joseph around 7:15 and they check Dad right in and tell us we will see him again in an hour. Almost 2 hours later they finally have him prepped for surgery and we get to go back and sit with him until they take him to the operating room at 9:45. At 10:20 they call and say the surgery has finally began. At 11:30 the doctor comes in and says the surgery went well and she has fixed all the disc problems and that he will be in recovery for an hour. At 12:45 they call for us to come in and see him...by this time Jacob and Mom are a nervous, twitching mess. Shannon is exhausted because he only had 2 hours of sleep and I'm trying to hold everyone together...as usual. Jacob speeds ahead of us and we are trying to warn him that Dad might be sleepy, bandaged, in pain etc. He pays no attention and just barrels into the room. I see him struggling not to cry and go around the corner...expecting the worst. Dad is sitting up in the bed, looking better than he has in a week, eating saltine crackers and drinking diet pepsi. I then realize that Jacob's near tears state is absolute relief. His Papaw is okay.

3o minutes later, we are on our way out the door and they have almost had to chase Dad down to get him to sit in the wheelchair so they can "do their job" and escort him out. Other than a sore throat and some shoulder soreness he says he feels fantastic. This all started a week ago tonight/tomorrow morning. In less than 24 hours we found out he would have to have surgery and the surgery is complete. It's absolutely amazing. Mom is still fussing because his doctor looked like she should be on a soap opera...Dad, however, was not complaining, lol.