April 14, 2009

Things are moving right along - in less than a week, Lynn gets to experience the second operation. We all had a very nice Easter week-end. Mac had his soccer game on Saturday, then we went to church afterwards and attended the Easter Bunny Brunch. Christa came by that afternoon, and helped out with the Easter eggs. She also had to show off her latest acquisition - a 2001 Rio, which looks to be in excellent condition. I'm still trying to figure out why my 21 year-old daughter, who is in school, and only has a part time job, has a car that is 2 years newer than mine. Next day, we went to Easter service, then met up with my Mom's side of the family at my Aunt Mickey's. Due to the traditional failure to communicate, each family was under the impression that they were the only ones bringing Easter eggs, so we had about 10 times the number of eggs that we needed. If Mac and Carlee had brought along 5 gallon pails instead of baskets, they could have filled them four or five times each. The food was, as usual, excellent, and I, as usual, ate way too much of it and, once again as usual, was able to completely understand how Jabba the Hutt feels on a daily basis. The conversation was good, and, since we stayed off the topic of politics, no gunfire broke out.

Of course, we overdid it some, staying later than we should have, and Lynn got pretty tired out. She is definitely recovering well from the neck surgery, and it's easy to forget that she had the operation less than 10 days ago. She is doing so well, in fact, that it seems a shame that she'll have to endure the second one soon. And that one will be much harder on her, and require much more recovery time. The incision is closing up very well, and the swelling is way down. She still has a little bit of pain when turning her head certain ways, but it is getting better every day.

It looks like we know the schedule for family coming in to town. Gary and Sharon will arrive this coming Sunday, will be there when Lynn has the operation, then will stay on a few more days while Lynn is in the hospital. They are going to help us out with the kids, which will be a big help. Hopefully, after spending quality time with Mac and Carlee, Gary and Sharon will be able to also make a full recovery. The day of the surgery itself, Lynn's friend Rhonda is going to make sure that Mac and Carlee get to their designated destinations, while the rest of us are at the hospital with Lynn. Lynn's mother Jo will be in Thursday or possibly Wednesday, and will stay with us for at least a week. Lynn's sister Susan should be around on Monday as well, and Christa said that she'd be willing to skip school - I mean, get an excused absense, in order to be there with Lynn.

We're not all that sure about exactly when on Monday they will operate. However, the heart operations are typically done first thing, before other operations, so it will probably be in the morning. Right now, we do not have any idea on how long it will take either, but I am sure we will get some word on that later. Based on my personal track record, it will last longer than it should, and I'll be pretty frazzled by the time it wraps up. The one thing we do know is that Lynn will have to spend at least four nights in the hospital. She'll probably be going home on Friday, if all goes well. Of course, recovery is going to take a long time after she gets back, so she won't really be 100% for a number of weeks. We're just going to have to take it one day at a time, and take things as they come...nothing like some standard time worn adages to wrap things up.