School has begun...

I am really not sure at this point who is happier?

Amy was so thrilled to be back among her friends. I mean really...she's been with family all summer! she will be starting volleyball tryouts this afternoon. She is not all that excited about it but she is in athletics anyway so that she can be in basketball later in the year. She decided that she might as well try out for volleyball instead of doing nothing all season. I am so proud of her! She is really an awesome person and I am so grateful that I get to be her mom! I just can't believe that she is in 8th grade already! I still cry when I remember back to her first day in kindergarten.

Brad started 4th grade yesterday. He is growing up so much too! Like all his friends, he was happy to be back at school. He has the sweetest teacher and I am happy about that. He has been lucky the last few years to get awesome teachers!

Connie woke up yesterday so excited to be going to the first day of school. Now, mind you, she is going to the same daycare she has been going to for the last 2 years. I guess she was just buzzing from Amy and Brad's excitement.

They were all so easy to get out of bed yesterday. Why is the second day so much harder? It was terrible trying to get them up this morning. I guess the new has already begun to wear off.

Well, here are a couple of pics from our BIG kids....

Bowling, anyone?

We had our back to school cub scout party last weekend. It was lots of fun...to watch! I am not a bowler and since Jeff just had surgery, he was only along for the ride and to get out of the house for a bit. But the kids all had lots of fun!

This video is a bit hard to watch. Amy took it with my digital camera and it bounces quite a bit. It's cute though.

Does anyone have a cure for those silly faces that Connie makes? We have been trying for a couple of months to get her to stop? I especially get irritated when someone talks to her and her only response is some silly face!

I hope everyone else has/had a great first day of school!

Jeff is home finally....

Actually, he c=got home Thursday afternoon. It was a total shock to both of us. But since he was doing all the things the surgeon thought necessary, he told Jeff that he could continue his recovery at home. Since we have been home, Jeff has been really good about getting his walking in. He is walking our whole neighborhood at least twice a day.

Mom stayed until this morning and took the kids shopping for school clothes. I am so thankful that she did that for me! I love to shop but I don't like to do it at this time of year. This was the last year that I only have two to buy supplies for so considering what they spent, maybe I should start that savings fund now????

Well that's all I have for now. I hope that everyone else is doing well.

Day 3 and still counting...

Jeff is doing so much better today. He started a clear liquid diet last night and is getting to move to a soft diet for dinner this afternoon. The surgeon is happy about his progress and so are we. We finally have some peace with the nursing staff only to have the neighbor man move all his family in with him. Boy! Are they a loud bunch. But (and this might amaze some of you) Jeff is just taking it all in stride and turning the television up. I am kinda shocked that he hasn't asked me to get his computer for him but he has just been vegetating in front of the television for now.

I decided (as though anything is up to me) that this would be a successful trip if we could get him home by Sunday evening. It looks like we might even get him home before then. But we are not rushing anything. He is walking quite a bit and taking it slowing with his intake. I will spare the details but we have proof that his bowels are working again.

I guess that's it for now. We hope everyone is doing well.

Day 2 and counting

Well, today was mostly just about overcoming last night. It was a rough one...but mostly because the nursing care has left something to be desired. Although to the nurses defense there did seem to be several different emergencies last night. Imagine that! Really sick people in the hospital! Who would have thought that?

Jeff is doing better. He just told the nurse that he is only having pain when he moves...and he pretty much only moves when he is tired of hearing me nag him about getting out of bed. But, he sat up for a long time two different times today and even took a walk. So, that is good. He is beginning to get hungry and the bowels are showing some signs of waking up so all of that is good news.

I had a good conversation with the patient advocate this afternoon to explain that we would really appreciate it if the nurses would try to understand what it is like to be the one lying in bed and unable to do much for yourself. Just to be clear here...I totally get the job these nurses have to do and I respect them for their dedication to the health of our community. But, really does an IV pump really have to beep for over 30 minutes before they (or anyone) does something to silence the pump? Jeff does pretty good sleeping through the lady's machine next door but when his machine does it, he isn't quite so patient.

Hopefully tonight will be at least a little quieter and Jeff will get to sleep at least more than 15 minutes at a time.

Jeff is on the road to recovery....finally

Well I guess even with this blog, email and the amazing invention of the telephone I am still terrible at keeping people updated on life's events. I realized this today as I emailed Aunt Mert today to let her know that he was out of surgery and in recovery. She apparently was one of several people that I neglected to even tell he was having surgery. I am so bad at this communication thing!

So, here's the deal. He has been struggling with diverticulitis since August 2007 when it perforated his colon. He had an 8 day hospital visit then and when he was released he was told that many times it can be treated with diet and being cautious (and having a prescription on file at all times). Well that plan worked well for a few months and then as time passed he was having more and more pain. Then about the beginning of the year, he had a tough bout with it has pretty much been on antibiotics about 3 weeks of every 5-6 weeks since then.

A couple of weeks ago, I made him an appointment and he had a CAT scan done. His gastro doctor told him to make an appointment with the surgeon because it definitely would require surgical intervention at this point. She explained to him that basically his body has built up so much scar tissue that the colon was narrowing and had the potential for another rupture. The surgeon agreed and 10 days later, here we are!

We got to the hospital (Methodist Hospital, Sugarland) this morning about 6am and they started his surgery about 830am. The surgery lasted about 2 hours and he spent a little over an hour in the recovery area. They finally got him into a room and he slept for another couple of hours. Only in the last hour or so has he been waking more regularly. They have him on a morphine pump and I think he wakes up when the medicine wears off. He only sleeps about 15 minutes at a time so it looks like it will be a long night.

As for the expected outcome....they were able to do the surgery laparoscopically so that is a good thing, I suppose. The surgeon told us that the procedure itself isn't much different but the scars are less. He is in alot of pain right now, but they are doing what they can to help him there too. He just met the nighttime nurse and remembered that he didn't care for her the last time he was here so it may be a long night. I am going to work on convincing him how much better he will feel in the long run if he will try to move around a bit. I know it will hurt, but I feel like I can empathize with him since I have had 3 c-sections and my tubes tied. Maybe he will at least realize that I know partly what he feels.

Anyway, that's about it for now. The kids are at home with my mom for the week. Amy has summer band and is starting her softball practice back up. Then there's school clothes shopping and sports try-outs in the next couple of weeks. Oh yeah, and school starts on the 24th. Why does it seem that the older they get, school becomes secondary to everything else. Luckily I am blessed with the world's smartest kids so it isn't too much of a struggle that school's main focus for her is to socialize.

Thanks for checking in on us. Love to you all!