Surgery, Again

OK. There's just one more thing to post about & then I think I'm all caught up.

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Last Monday, Andrew had surgery to remove scar tissue & re-fix a hernia that he originally had fixed over 2 years ago. It's workman's comp, so thank heavens that he's going to be paid for some of the time he's having to take off, and we're all praying that this surgery will get rid of the pain that he's been dealing with since 2006.

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I HATE it when he has surgery because the meds do really crazy things to him. For instance, he just doesn't wake up from the anesthesia. Like, for HOURS he doesn't wake up. And morphine just about kills him every time, literally. His respiratory system practically shuts down, and the nurses are prodding him & yelling at him to "Breathe!!" When I came in to see him in recovery (3 hours after his surgery was over), his oxygen sats were UP TO about 85. He was about 3 shades of gray, and the nurses kept asking me to poke him to get him to pick up his breathing. Yep, lots of fun. Add into that a mommy that hasn't nursed her baby in almost 10 hours, and you've got a really fun day.

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But we made it through & now he's almost been cleared to go back to work. His incision is right across his belly button, so he's been having a devil of a time keeping the kids from hitting it. Frank especially doesn't understand why he can't just hurl himself into Daddy's lap & have Daddy catch him. I don't appreciate that he can't burp Jack or hold him when he's squirming or fussy. It's very true that we don't realize how much these men do for us until they can't. I have to take care of every chore, meal, fussy kid, phone call, and barking dog. (Andy kind of looks like a pregnant lady when he's forced to move off the couch.) And now Jack has mysteriously started waking up in the middle of the night for an extra feeding. So Mommy is sleepy all the time too, on top of everything else.

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But we perservere, and soon it'll all be better. Until the next catastrophe.