Brian's surgery = success!!

Perhaps you remember me mentioning in a previous post that Brian had torn his rotator cuff and was scheduled to have surgery in August. After what felt like waiting forever, that day finally came and thankfully, the surgery was  successful.  PHEW!

Hey husbands, here's a free piece of advice for you: file this one under "things I should never say to my wife when I'm about to go under anesthesia and have surgery".  Ready for it?  DO NOT, under any circumstances, start telling your wife on the way to the hospital where she can find all of the important documents should, heaven forbid, something happen to you in surgery.  I was already a nervous wreck about him having this surgery done, so this was pretty much my reaction:

Ok, I've caught my breath. We can now return to our regularly scheduled blog post.

The surgery itself was a success, though the recovery has been hard for him.  We had heard that it was, but I don't think either of us was really prepared for just how hard it would be, and how truly immobile he is with the huge contraption that he has to wear.  Here is a shot of the brace, though you can't see a lot of it in this pic...take my word for it that it's large, makes him uncomfortably warm, and has a million velcro straps.

On a related note, we've hired Gracie as his full time caretaker.  Her requested salary was treats and snuggles, so it's working out well for everyone.

Oh and see that recliner he's in?  That's pretty much his new home.  He has to sleep IN that thing.  Yep, didn't know that until we were being discharged from the hospital!  He did try sleeping in the bed one day last week, but it wasn't supportive enough for his arm, so back to the recliner he went.  He's been doing his at-home exercises and he can start physical therapy at the end of this week, so I think he's looking forward to (hopefully) regaining some of his mobility back to that arm.  He's been working from home by having phone appointments with clients, but even with that he's going stir crazy (he can't drive until the brace comes off)...can't say I blame him! He wants to get up and move around so that he doesn't go stir crazy, but sometimes if he's up for too long without having his arm propped somehow, it puts too much pressure on it and it's very sore for hours after.  We are in week 3 of recovery, the brace stays on for 4-6 weeks, so keep your fingers crossed that it can come off after 4.

Here's the other complication that happened around the time of the surgery: 3 days before the surgery, Liam got sick.  102 degree fever, headache, chills, etc...took him to the doctor, said it was a virus that it just had to run its course.  It finally did go away, but he was in rough shape for a few days.  Brian had his surgery on a Friday (Liam's illness overlapped with his surgery), then I started to feel like I was coming down with the same thing over the weekend.  I perked up a bit by the beginning of the next week, only to have Jake come down with it.  Full-blown, fever, miserable....had to miss day 2 of the new school year. Then my mom (who had been at our house the day of the surgery and around sick Liam) came down with the virus.  Fast forward to Friday of that week and I had to leave work early....yep, the full blown fever struck me hard.  I was miserable most of that weekend.  Then poor Jake (who had been better for a few days) came down with a stomach bug on Sunday that involved puking most of the afternoon.

So if you pieced those events together, you probably noticed that there was someone (if not multiple people) sick during that entire week after Brian's surgery.  I have 2 things in response to that: first, I think it's obvious I am not in the running for a caretaker of the year award considering I was sick twice in that week period and also, we have the BEST parents in the world who were willing to stay with us and care for our sick children!!  Seriously, it was a rough, rough week and I don't know how we would have survived or who would have been taking care of Brian if they hadn't been willing to help us out.  So THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts to our parents!!

I have no idea which of us were sick in that shot above, but I'm sure someone was.  Or we were at least harboring the germs that would wreak havoc later....

That's all I have for now on his surgery, I will be sure to post an update once we know if that contraption can come off.  Thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers that people sent to us over text message, emails, and facebook messages...we appreciate you thinking of us!!