Hip Surgery

This last week I couldn't work because Amphi school district is on fall break, dad was going in to have his hip surgery so I decided to go home for the week, and I am so glad that I did! I got to spend some time with everyone and help out a little, and my car went on the spritz again. I tell you I don't know what I would do without brothers, Jon has been working on it, and calling Daniel for his opinion. They are great and I really don't know what I would do without them. Dad and Scott both got to add in what they think it is. Everyone thought it was the Alternator or the connections to the battery, well we found out that it wasn't the alternator so now to check the connections.

The night before dad's hip surgery we had a party. Dad fixed the spa up and as a special surprise Elise, Ian, Jaden and Melissa all got to 'swim' with Grandpa!

There was a lot of splashing, jumping and tickling...

We also played charades with Ian and Elise.

Let's see... A movie...

Three words... Who knows but we all had fun and it brought back a lot of good memories!

Tuesday October 14th, bright and early, earlier than needed- but that's dad for you, Dad and Aunt Louise went to the hospital to check in. Dad poses for his 'before' shot.

I went in while he was still in recovery. He was there so much longer than the lady at information had told me that I was getting worried. The reason I found out later was that his blood pressure had dropped to 70/40! They were all really worried about it, but finally took him out and I followed him up to his room. He was semi awake and but mostly out of it. He would look at me, and wave. This went on for the next few hours. He would start to fall asleep, wake up look around see me and wave and say, "Hi, Mary." Then close his eyes again and snore for a minute. He had to be bundled up to get his body temperature up after being in the cold OR. The report on his surgery was that it went really well, the new hip was in and appeared to be right on. The big surprise was that he had a lot of tumors. We all knew there was one, but the way the doctor put it, they were like gravel in his hip area. The doctor isn't worried about them, but he sent them to biopsy anyway. He thinks some were actually bone break off from a fall. I guess a while back, dad fell off Daniel's horse, Robbie, and landed on his hip.

Wednesday, he was doing better. In typical Dad fashion, he was asked to get up and walk to the door and back to his bed, he got up and walked all the way to the nurses station. On Thursday he walked all the way to the room of a neighbor who was just out of knee replacement surgery. I had to talk to him about the difference of pushing yourself to get better and over-doing it.

He had a hard day Thursday, despite walking all the way down the hall, maybe partly because of it. They had problems keeping his bandages clean. They also had problems keeping his IV in. He has bruises all up and down his arms were they tried to poke him but it didn't work. The one that actually went in, proved to be a bigger problem, because it backed out of the vain and made his arm swell up. At this point they decided not to put one in anymore and that he could do all his medicine orally.

Thursday also brought visitors. Jon and family came in to say hi. While walking in with Jaden I tried to tell him that he couldn't push any buttons. He looked up at me in wonder and said, "There are buttons!"

All the kids got a ride on Grandpa's bed and a candy from his get well stash.

Aunt Louise spent this morning (Friday) rearranging the family room, which will be dad's room for the next three weeks because he can't do stairs. I slept through it all! That shows you just how much help I am!

Around three today, dad came home from the hospital and made his way slowly to the bed, where he is now, in reach of the phone where he has already put out a few calls. As Jon would say, "Shocker!"