Dad's Surgery - Day 1 (Lots of Pics)

This is day one of Dad's surgery. He had to be at McKay Dee Hospital at 6:30 am. I met them there. My very nice handsome husband got up early and dropped me off. I was there to spend some time with mom while dad was in his surgery.

Dad would never admit that he was scared for the surgery. He was as he always says, "Mean, Nasty, and Ornery" but he had butterflies.

This was while we in the room before surgery. Mom sitting patiently. We did a lot of goofing off and laughing. It was fun and a very light air in the room.

Dad had to ask for his booties, and when the aide gave him his booties she also gave him a hair net. Why this man needs a hair net I don't know, but we had some fun with it anyway! It was big enough to go from one end of the head on over to his chin. It was a riot to see it on his head this way!

Then we went for the French look

And this is what I call the "Kung Fu Panda" hat

They had to come in and do another test of his heart. You know... slap this on and then slap a few more on take the pliers and attach them to his chest and make sure he was good and alive to make the surgery. Supposedly this test was one of those tests they update into their main frame computer so that it can be pulled up at anytime instead of having to retreive the records.

Mom called me from the room where she waits for the news from the dr on how the surgery went. I had to run home and pick up my girls. I was at Parker (Matt's Work) getting the car seat for the girls when she called me. I rushed home to get the girls and I was on my way. Mom called again to inform me she had met with the dr and said that the surgery went well. He had lots of bone spurs and the surgery went a bit longer. She told me what room he was in and how to get there. I was on my way. When we got there the only person in the room was mom. "Where in the World is Darrel Scott" (Carmen Sandiego?)

Approximately 10 mins after our arrival this lovely nurse wheeled my father into his infamous room. He was grogy but coherant enough to know we were there. For a few minutes anyway.

This was the machine that was on his leg. This thing is so cool. Every 5 mins it moves his leg. It will extend the leg out, and then it will move the leg back in. This way the scar tissue wont heal to where he wont be able to bend his knee at all. Also to help the knee moving so it wont hurt as much to move if it were stationary. Those are my theories, and I always forgot to really ask for the actual reason for it. I am sure you get the point of it just by looking at it.

Dad heard mom's voice and put his hand up for her. It was very heart touching to see that.

Ashlyn was very unsure of her Grandpa. She was actually very frightened of him and wouldn't let go of me. She wouldn't go anywhere near him with that mask on. She gave him the wide eye'd look of fear stare.

Dad was determined to wake himself out of his local anethesia. He was moving his arms back and forth, up and down. He had no recollection of doing this either when I asked him later on in the day. That's ok! ;) Dad was in the surgery room longer than expected due to the bone spurs. The dr only likes to keep the turnacuit (spelling?!?!? sorry) on for a period of time. Otherwise it starts doing tissue damage and he didn't want that. He took the tunacuit off and dad had some blood loss. They had him on oxygen to make sure his blood oxygen levels were up and his heart rate wouldn't drop.

His mouth was so dry from having the tube down it he was asking for water. He could barely say it his mouth was so dry. He also had a slight fat lip on his upper right side probably from the tube also. I asked him later on that day if his throat was sore due to the tube (as per the anethesiologist warnings may occur) and he said not to bad, no, not really. Was good to hear.

Mom, the Girls, and I left for a few hours to let him get some rest and to finish sleeping off the anesthesia. We meandered down to Savers (always some great finds there to decorate the house), and Big Lots, where we HAD to buy some munchies cause the girls were complaining they were hungry. I think kids are always hungry when they aren't at home, when someone is over, or when they are over at someone elses house, or at the most inconvient times. When we got back dad was more coherant and would carry on a conversation with us. He was still tired and would rest when needed. OH I forgot to mention that from the moment the nurse brought dad into the room he was moving his toes on the leg he had surgery on. They said that was very unusual of patients to do right out of surgery. Ok back to what I way saying. He was telling the nurse that he was hungry. She told him only the clear liquids. You could immediately see the grumble on his face. He didn't like that idea. He told her he would stick to water then. LOL! I was chuckling to myself. I ended up convincing him that if he had some of the clear liquids that the nurse would let him order some "real" food. He looked his choices and opted for lime jello and 2 orange popsicles. The pic above you can see him finishing one off. Not to mention that you order the food via room service and they bring it to you. What service!!!

They swapped out his face mask for some nose tubes. The girls liked the idea of giving grandpa a hug on the "other" side of his big owie. Dad's jello and popsicles settled well so he ordered an Oriental Salad. Another thing I havn't mentioned yet was that he had this catheter line in his leg that drained all of the exes blood from the knee. It was all put into a nice spill proof container (one of the nurses ended up dropping it) for transfusion purposes. Since he had some blood loss they put his blood into an iv bag and pumped it back into him. I was in total amazment at how they just recycled his own blood and it didn't have to go through any processing even though it was his own blood. Cool beans! They think of some neat stuff! Not to mention the nice durable spill proof container! =)

It was time to say goodnight. I was driving mom home and was supposed to be picked up by Matt once we were there.

Well as you can see from this pic that I forgot to tell Matt that I was doing as he had planned and when I got to Mom and Dad's I informed him I was there and at the same time he informed me he was home!... hmmm..... what to do now. SooooOoOOOooooo.... the girls and I kept grandma company and slept on the couch. Next time I recommend me sleeping on the longer couch and the girls on the shorter one.

As a side note. I went home twice that day and on my 2nd return home Anabelle informed me that their new land lord was letting them move in a day early. So instead of eating dinner I helped Anabelle move 2 loads of boxes and stuff to her house. We now have our house back, and Anabelle has her own space to call her own! How exciting for them!!!! They now live .4 miles up the street from our house! Sweet! It's going to be nice to have some family around. I will have to take some pics of the view of the mountains from the front of their house. It's gorgeous!