Wednesday - Post Doctor Visit

It's past midnight here in Plano when I've finally begun shutting down for the day. We had our post-op visit with Dr Emerson late this afternoon and recieved clearance to foray back to Nashville tomorrow. Dr E is still shaking his head over what this ride has been. He thinks March is a good time to shoot for as the time to do the final revision on the hip. He examined the incision closely and is amazed at the difference in now and a month ago when we were ready to make the trip home the day before the whole thing blew up. Sharon has held her breathe all day that it would look good and that he would say all systems were a go.

We spend the biggest part of the day doing those final prep things needed prior to departure. The one thing that remains is loading of the van with the stuff from here. I have the coach ready to go but didn't want to jinx things by having the van loaded today. Sooooo, we will try to get it done tomorrow and will leave whenever it is done. Probably won't get very far from Plano tomorrow but, that's OK too. Having this kind of tight schedule makes it easy to flex without throwing things off too far. [:D]

We have had two or three days of good progress since we got the right stuff to calm her stomach. I can't believe that little detail was overlooked when we left the hospital. The bottom line answer was as simple as OTC Prilosec! In fact, it's half the strength of what I take all the time. With that in her system she has begun eating a little (well, a lot, actually) better and says she feels a lot better. I truly believe part of the problem was that she was hungry, as well as the drug effects. It was, indeed, all tied together with the drug-effect on the stomach. After the doctor visit today, I even took her out to Fuddruckers for one of her all-time favorite hamburgers and fries! Somewhat surprisingly, she managed to eat well over half of it! That's a HUGE step toward recovery! She's even been sleeping better as a result of the calmer stomach. All in all, these seemingly small things have added up to a tremendous quality of life change for her. She's almost back to normal, but, somewhat fortunately, her "gotta-be-busy" hasn't returned yet. She can actually sit still for an hour or two with little to nothing in her hands. That, I think is mostly a result of her strength levels. She's still somewhat fragile yet and and tires quite easily. It will be sometime before her stength has come back to normal levels. Through it all, she's still my hero for being able to survive all the "stuff" that she has and still maintain a mostly postive outlook. Not to say there haven't been some of "those monents", but they've been rare and short!
She can hardly wait for Thanksgiving when the kids will be up. We know it's going to wear her out, but it will certainly be in a very postive way!

We will make a mid-recovery trip back to Plano in January. When I asked Dr Emerson it he wanted us to do that today, his eyes lit up like he had a new toy. I could tell he didn't want to ask us to drive back, but he said it would give him a chance to make some mid term corrections if necessary since he would be able to do a better evaluation in person than he could tell from another surgeons evaluation done in Nashville. He then smiled and said that it just hit him that we don't mind the traveling at all because it was part of our way of life! I told him that no we don't mind at all, because it would give us a mid winter excuse to make an RV run to someplace that would probably be warmer than where we were! On the road again! We can't wait to get on the road again! ...................!"

Thanks to all who have held us close for these couple of months. We couldn't have made it without your support. You're precious to us!

Cheers!

Joe
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