I'm better now, what about Kevin?

Sorry about no update yesterday.  I went on very little sleep, followed by one L-O-N-G day.  For the quick answer, Kevin is home and better.  For the longer version, read on:

Tuesday, we got to the hospital at 11 as ordered, for a 1:00 surgery.  The nurse came in, took his vitals, asked some questions, and confiscated his clothes.  Here he is in a hospital gown...and nothing else.  NOT a look he was in to.  The we waited.  Waited and waited and waited. At 12:45, we asked what was up, and found out the surgeon was running behind, due to one operation taking longer than expected.  Kevin had no food after midnight, no cigarette after 9, and no pain pill since the day before.

Let's just say, he was NOT at his best.  He was getting crankier by the minute.  At one point, he said, "I'm gonna TEAR THIS PLACE UP.  But first I'll need my pants."  LOL  He even cracks me up when he's crabby.  He also said that they better hurry up, or he was going to turn the gown around and roam the halls, and could NOT be held responsible for his actions.

They finally took him in at 2:30 to get him prepped.  Linda and I hadn't eaten either (we were NOT going to eat in front of a starving man) so we went down and got a piece of VERY old pizza from the cafeteria.  ICK.  At 4:15, we asked what was up, and was told that things were delayed, so he'd only been in for 30 minutes because of another delay.  *sigh*

At 4:50, the surgeon came out and told us that he was done.  They fixed the two disks and fused the three surrounding vertebrae with screws.  We should be able to see him in 20 minutes in his room.  I made some "he's out" calls, and went back in to see him.

As you saw from my last entry, we didn't see him until much later, and he wasn't in his room until after 7.  His pain was pretty bad, and he was very uncomfortable.  Thankfully, when I got back yesterday morning, he was doing a bit better.

By mid-morning, Kevin was taking walks in the hall.  He got real food (not Jello and broth) and wasn't needing anything for pain until it was time for it.  He sat in the chair more than the bed, and was READY to get out of there.  We played the waiting game for 400 hours, and he was released a bit before 2:00. 

The ride home was pretty rough.  He hadn't taken anything for pain in over 4 hours, and here I was without so much as a Tylenol.  As soon as we left, I could tell this was going to be a rough trip, so I stopped 4 blocks from the hospital and bought him a couple of Advil.  We finally got here, after the 17 hour drive home.  (So I exaggerate, big deal!)

Now, he's happy to be home.  He gets pretty sore, and moves pretty slow.  He can't do some things on his own yet (reaching and bending) so I'm staying home today.  That gives us the weekend to get him to a point where I can go back to work.  If the improvement today is equal to the improvement yesterday, he should be doing back flips in no time!

Thank you all for the prayers.  I needed them desperately.  The surgeon does this all the time, we don't.  What's routine for one can scare the daylights out of another.  That's my second scary time in that hospital this year.  I'm done.