W-O-W......

I just can't explain by words alone how rough a night Ray had last night!!! Thanks Brek for doing those updates for me....for some reason my phone won't let me post to here so until I make a trip to the house to shower and change I have to rely on Brek and Jenefer to do my postings...and may I say....you gals are doing a beautiful job! Thanks so much for literally ALL you do! Ok....I am going to back track to slightly before the surgery and just give the day as it progressed through my eyes and thoughts.

The night before the surgery my Sister picked up the girls about 8pm so we didn't have to worry about them so early the next morning!!! Thanks Amanda you can't imagine how much it helps to know my girls are in good hands!!! So we stayed up till about 11pm....nerves and all...and then Ray and I seemed to take turns sleeping and waking. It was a long night....I think it was just preparing us for the EXTREMELY long day ahead! Ray got his best sleep after my alarm went off at 4:20am. He slept while I dressed...he was soundly sleeping and wasn't too pleased when I went to MAKE him get up since it was 5:00a and we needed to be at the hospital at 5:30a. We drove out. Pretty much in silence.....We have had so much opportunity to talk and voice our fears, stresses etc that it was just nice to hold hands as we drove and say our fervent silent prayers. Upon arrival it was CROWDED! It seems they ask all those who are supposed to be in surgery to arrive at the same time....so it was a lot of organized chaos! It never ceases to amazing me how many people it takes to "check in" with. We had the beeper kiosk....enter your name take a pager and wait....then you are paged come up and get medical history forms and an ID bracelet applied....then sit back down...then your re-re-paged to a different desk to give photo ID and insurance info. Then its back to the same spot to sit and wait till your paged a third time to go back to triage. Get a weight and temp and off we go with yet another person to our room. Get some vitals....then we meet the nurse who does their own set of vitals...then walked in the phlebotomist....Which Ray practically scares her to change occupations....she ends up getting his nurse who starts the IV and luckily will get the lab work at the same time....some nurses won't do that...he got lucky! Then......................the wait.................Ray was scheduled to go to the O.R. about 7am....we didn't leave for the O.R. until 7:45a I gave him a kiss....and off to the waiting room.....to do exactly that....WAIT! Thank heavens for my Mom and Dad....they were there with me from the get go....we played Farkle!, Rummy (two kinds) and cross-worded together. Dad was my ice/drink runner (thanks so much to you both!!) The worse part is just NOT knowing....Dr. Ott spoiled us....he sent word either through him or the nurse almost every hour.....this one (and all the other's in the waiting room were the type that came AFTER the surgery was done!!) so 1 hour, 2, 3, 4, 5......ok it was supposed to be 4-5 hours. By now I am watching the clock every 3 or so minutes....DOH! That just makes it go slower! Finally at 6 hour point I talked to the volunteer in the waiting room...asked her to please just check to make sure he was still in surgery...this 2nd volunteer was sub-par (our one from earlier in the morning was awesome!) but this lady was quite rude, a little funny to watch and not very efficient) I wanted to make sure we didn't miss the announcement that he was in recovery. She had just come from the back and said he was still indeed in the O.R....then about 20 mins later she announced he was done and then the doctor appeared about 10 mins later. All went fairly well.....it was more involved then originally thought....(isn't that SO Ray) ;o) The tumor had made the normally small tibia...about 3 times its normal size! It was also VERY close (almost too close) to the foot...but luckily they were able to make the graft above the connection. The doctor also had to stretch some of his calf muscle around to give "padding" He said Ray tolerated it well and was even talking a bit in recovery and moving his toes when asked. They also ended up putting a rod in along with the pins and plates we already knew about. He would be in recovery about 45 mins and then up to the room. I hit the cafeteria for some lunch then headed up. It was more then 45 mins but whats new...its a hospital. He got to the room and he looked HORRIBLE!!! Color was awfully! He was emotionally a wreck! (later I found out it was because he thought they ended up having to go with the amputation...a possibility we knew) He cried, was in pain and asked for his Mom. He needed her! He cried some more and complained of pain and that he just wanted to die....then things leveled some for a few hours....then about 10pm IT HIT!!! He was having muscle spasms (from where they had pulled the muscle around during surgery!) To the point he was screaming, would quit breathing and of course not getting sleep. We didn't really get along with our nurse that night (luckily we had a nurse change at 11pm) but before the change I literally had to INSIST she call the doctor....he needed something....and also our dear friend Dr. Mike L happened to text and call and mentioned there are things to help with those....he encouraged us to call the nurse to call the doctor. Thanks Mike you helped us in the right direction during a low point! About midnight Ray got his first dose of Valium the relief was instantaneous! He slept for a solid hour...the WHAM it was back with a vengeance......he was scheduled for Valium only every 6 hours....so it was intense...one hour a relief followed by hours of excruciating pain! Finally the new nurse gave him the Valium and 1 1/2 hours early. He also started with a slight fever....so they did IV antibiotics. Fast forward through the worst of the worst nights and we met with Dr. Scott this morning...he is increasing the Valium to every 4 hours....UP'D the morphine not only can he give himself a dose every 10 they have him on a drip of it continuously...he also gets Toradol (sp?) every 8 hours. That is our course of action today....lets hope it is better. The doctor is not worried about infection yet down at the surgical site (that happens about day 5) so the fever will be watched closely and his must do his breathing treatments....they are keeping pneumonia at bay hopefully! Well Ray's sisters Carrie and Ro came in this morning...so I came home to freshen up and relax a few....as I was typing this I got a text from Ro and Ray got up and moved a bit on crutches....despite the pain he said it felt SO GOOD to be out of the bed! I think its gonna be a better day!

Thanks again for EVERYONE who contributes in one way or another....we truly couldn't do this without each and everyone of you. You truly are doing the Lord's errands!