I will soon get to see my wife and youngest daughter. My mom-in-law passed away early Sunday morning. Non-coincidental that it was not Halloween, but All Saints Day.

Carol, enjoy your Rest. Well done.

So it’s been a while since a blog post.  Life without Steph has not been fun nor easy.  We have fun moments and easy moments, but they are that, just moments.  However, they do provide a glimpse of relief and a good chance to laugh.  So it was this morning for my mom (Ma).  Lizzie (4) often asks when Mommy is coming home.  Our standard response has become: “We don’t know.  She’s helping Nana go see Jesus.”  So, this morning Lizzie and Ma have the following conversation:

Lizzie: When is Mommy coming home?

Ma: Do you remember where Mommy is?

Lizzie: She’s with Nana helping Nana go see Jesus.

Ma: That’s right.

Lizzie: Is Jesus busy?

Yngwie Malmsteen – Concerto Suite in Eb minor For Electric Guitar

The cavalry arrives on Wednesday.  The girls and I pick up my mom Wednesday night.

Daddy-Daughters activity on Day 1 sans Mommy: teaching the girls how to change guitar strings. 

Went to see the doc today.  Incision is healing well – just like it should.  Got a prescription for physical therapy.  Got clearance to lift things up to 10 lbs. and was basically told to keep doing what I’m doing and to not do anything stupid.  Last follow up is on the 23rd.

Sounds like a recipe for success. 

The leg feels good.  The back, not as much.  Still pretty sore.  The meds help most days.  Course, most days I’m annoyingly tired.  Me thinks there’s a connection there.  My first day back at work was last Thursday.  From the physical standpoint, I held up fine.

While I am able to do simple things like pour a glass of water and brush my teeth, I am prevented from lifting anything above 5 lbs.  This means Steph now takes out the garbage, is the only one who can get Gracie out of her bed, brings in the groceries.  Not fun.  My personal sense of manliness has certainly taken a back seat in all of this.

I can tell my back is healing though.  Getting into, and up from, bed is easier.  I am able to drive again (when I don’t take meds, don’t worry, no funny business).  I’m learning to kneel correctly.  Our friends have been a huge help as well.  A prepared dinner every other day, folks coming over in the evening  to watch Gracie so Steph can keep going to Bible study, taking the two older sisters on walks to the playground so sleep can occur mid-day.  We are in a great community here.

I have an appointment with the doc this Wednesday to check the incision and make sure things are healing well from an informed perspective.  I’ll also bring up the point of physical therapy and when that business can start.

So that’s my back.  Now to other things:

Steph’s mom continues to deteriorate.  Death appears imminent at this point.  I would love to look back on this post next year and see how wrong I was and see how much I underestimated God.  But I’m just not there.  Best (non-medical) guesses are a couple months at most.

We’re getting ready for Steph to take Gracie out there for a while.  She’ll probably leave mid-Sept.  Could be two weeks, could be two months.  My mom has agreed to come out here while Steph’s gone so that someone can watch the girls while I try to do the whole school and work thing.  Not a fun scenario anyway you frame it, but it’s gotta happen.  Tears have abounded.  I’ve only lost grandparents previously.  This is hard for me and it’s not even my mom (though she certainly has become that over the course of 9+ years of knowing Steph).  I can’t imagine what Steph’s experiencing.  The desire to be there conflicting with the maternal desire to be with all of her children.

I was also going to talk about the upcoming school year and everything academic, but I don’t have the energy.  Another post to be determined later.

For the time being though, we think about happier things as my folks roll into town tomorrow.  Looking forward to a fun week and my folks meeting Gracie for the first time.

I’ve always seen the diagrams in chemistry class and just thought that it was a simple way to visualize a complex reality.  Apparently, it’s really just a diagram of reality.

Single molecule pictured

I can’t even begin to describe how cool this is to me.  And I’m not even a science guy.

HT: Fogey via Facebook

Life Lessons from Back Surgery

• I already knew this from all of Lizzie’s time in the hospital, but it was once again confirmed this week: making nice with the nurses (and having good nurses) makes all the difference in the world.
• Having a book with you in the pre-op and post-op stages really is a great way to start conversations.
• General anesthesia does funny things to your body.
• I’m not the biggest fan of television, but boy, in a situation like post-op care, it really does help time pass, especially when you’re head is too cloudy from medicine to do academic reading.
• Your body can be anxious and tense without your mind actively telling the rest of you to be tense.  The strength and role of your subconscious has never been so blatantly apparent than Thursday evening.
• This whole situation is yet another evidence that I have really good friends.
• This whole situation is yet another evidence that email is a really good invention.
• Thursday night, walking around the unit with my nurse, with zero pain in my right leg — I don’t think I’ve cried tears of joy like that except when each of my girls were born.  I still get choked up talking about it.
• Percocet + the lingering effects of gen. anesthesia make me very sleepy.
• zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I’m home and resting. Thanks for praying! I’m able to sit up and walk without pain in my leg. First time in a long time. God is Healer indeed.  Off to bed with me.