End of the Day, Monday, Nov. 22

I plan to tell you, eventually, all the hilarious things Bill said when we briefly visited him in person after surgery. But not till tomorrow. Today, the hectic-ness JUST ended, and I'm going to SLEEEEEEEEP!

But just so you know, he is in a private room (yay! we worried about his sharing a room), and pain is the WHOLE deal. He said he had never felt a level-10 pain, even after the last operation, but today he felt a level-12, beyond anything he had ever felt in his life! YIKES!

He's on the demerol drip, but it only goes every 6 minutes, and only if he clicks it, so when he falls asleep, the pain creeps up.

He couldn't open his eyes much when we visited his room (he's in a regular room, not ICU!), and he kept trying to talk, so we thought we should leave pretty quickly, as it seemed like he felt an obligation to entertain us, and we DID NOT want that! He has enough problems!

So if you want to imagine him, picture a little bitty room, with this cute cowboy in a little bitty bed in the middle. On both legs, he has air-filled wraps to keep blood clots out, then he has an air-filled wrap on his right arm, too.

THEN, he has about 8 wires going into his chest on the right side, monitoring the blood flow between his liver and his heart. THEN he has about 4 wires going into his hands, giving him pain reliever and electrolytes and water and a bunch of stuff, I don't know what all he's getting. He was begging for ice chips, which I fed him, one at a time.

He has an oxygen tube in his nose, and keeps pulling it out and putting it up on his forehead, and then his machine starts beeping because his blood level of oxygen level starts free falling, and we go, "Bill! STOP TAKING THAT THING OUT OF YOUR NOSE!" He goes, "I don't like it."

Somehow, everything he says seems hilarious. But he actually did say some funny stuff to the nurse.

She goes, "Okay, Bill, now I have to do a depression assessment. Do you feel blue often? Do you feel like life is meaningless? Do you have trouble falling alseep?" He goes, "No, no, no," to all those. Then she says, "Do you prefer to stay at home? Or do you like to do new things?"

There is this silence, and then, without even opening his poor little swollen eyes, he replies, "I like to do new things at home."

How can he be funny even in THOSE circumstances?

Well, there's more, but I'll end the day here. I'm in the hotel, but will go home tomorrow. The kids are working out dropping by the house in the night tonight, to comfort the dogs, then coming back or something. They're driving fools!

I'm not clear who is doing what tonight, but as for tomorrow, I don't think Bill will want long stretches of company tomorrow--even me! He likes to hold my hand when I'm there, and he gets a little bit sad when I leave, but he needs to rest. Still, I'll stay with him every possible minute I can tomorrow, as long as I can do it without tiring him. Then I will tell you all about it!

For now, we're all just so happy that that scary surgery is over. Who knows what troubles lie ahead, but we're just happy about TODAY, cause that's what we've got.

Such profound gratitude to every single one of you who was pulling for that boy. And extra special to TW and JW--you know who you are!--for helping LAST MINUTE with our dogs, and ending up doing a lot more than they signed up for, due to my lack of planning. Talk about friends.....

Love and more love,
Diamond Lil