The surgery

 

Sam and I went to a hotel Wednesday about 11am...

 

[which by the way was replacing toilets in all the rooms but we didnt care if they were jack hammering we were exhausted from being with Grampa all night and needed sleep]

 

We slept till 3pm... Grampa's surgery was at 5pm, so we wanted to be there about 4pm...  before they took him into pre-op...

We arrive at his room and it was crowded!  Sam's sister Tina and her hubby Ciro [who looks like Scott Baio...] their daughter Kristina, Sam's sister Lisa, Sam's sister Becky, Sam and I...

We are all standing around Grampa's bed when he opens his eyes and says

"What is this... a wake?" 

"No Dad, its a party"

"Oh Ya? Then where is my glass of Harvey's?" we all laughed...

Then they came to take him to pre-op, and he was gone... sigh... so we headed down to the surgery waiting room... which was packed! [this is an excellent hospital] so we went to the lobby and sat down. 

Soon a nurse came out and asked for 2 people to come back to be with Grampa in pre-op

[They had asked him why he was there... he said "I don't know"... then they asked which hip was to be operated on and he said the wrong hip... I guess they decided "Uh lets get some family members back here"]

Anyway, the surgeon came and talked to Sam and Lisa in pre-op saying he has good news... they are not going to have to replace his hip and use a rod down his femur after all...  they only need to put in 3 screws...

A huge sigh of relief went over us all...  Whew... Thank God...

Right before they took him into surgery he told Lisa

"I want a beer" she laughed and said

"Dad, after surgery you can have a beer"

Later when Sam and Lisa were leaving pre -op Sam said

"So you gonna go buy Dad a 40oz for after surgery, Lisa?" and he laughed 

[You have to realize Grampa has never been a beer drinker anyway, he is more of a Scotch or Harvey Bristol Cream kind of guy... so the beer thing was funny anyway]

Lisa said "No.. I'm not going to go buy him a beer, he'll never remember I said that anyway!" and she laughed...

 

So there we were taking up half the lobby... Sam, me, Tina, Ciro, Kristina, Lisa, and Becky... then Tina and Ciro's oldest son Nicholas showed up and our daughter Candice came too...

We were all telling Grampa stories and laughing... other people in the lobby were laughing at the stories too...

A little over an hour later the surgeon came out with an x-ray... the surgery was a success... he was in post-op and doing great... 

Ohhh we were so relieved... and just as the surgeon was walking away, he turns and says something that we will NEVER forget...

"You made the right decision!" and he was gone...  Whoa! that was pretty significant to us... we had agonized over whether to put Grampa through the surgery the night before!

Oh.. we were so happy... 

there was a buzz of excitement surrounding us...  we went up to his room to wait for his return... I had to shut his door for fear they would kick us all out for having a party...

[9 happy laughing relatives in a hospital room is usually grounds for getting 86'd out of the hospital!]

A little while later, Grampa arrived... and they told us his dementia would probably be worse after surgery...

 

maybe for some older patients but not for Grampa... first words out of his mouthwere

"Where is my beer? Lisa said I could have a beer after surgery!" we all laughed... 

We steered him away from wanting a beer but then he started in on

"I want a 'Scotch Sandwich'"

"What is a 'Scotch Sandwich' Dad?" he looked at us like we were stupid

"Valentine's Scotch between two ice cubes" we all cracked up...

[All this talk about Scotch, Beer and Harvey's, you'd think Grampa was an alcoholic but he is not...

maybe Grampa thinks if he can drink he must be ok... 

 I don't know what that is all about...

but its funny as hell when he does it...

maybe he does it to make us laugh]

 

Suddenly, Grampa realized something...

"Hey you didn't tell me my grandchildren are here!" which sounded more like

"Get the hell out of the way, my grandchildren are here" we all turned to look at Candice, Nicholas and Kristina who were together in the corner of the room... 

 

They came over and started to talk to Grampa...  they made plans to go skiing and ride motorcycles together [that won't happen but you gotta have dreams... less than 10 years ago he was doing that with them]

 

Sam and I decided to say our good-byes... we were exhausted... having only slept a few hours in the last couple of days... We headed over to the hotel and went to bed...

The next morning, we headed over to the hospital again... Our daughter Candice had the day shift with Grampa... He looked good, sat up and was eating some breakfast... It's hard to get Grampa to eat... its a challenge to put it mildly...  but we told him "Dad... you want to go home, you have to eat and you have towalk... so work hard when the physical therapist comes today" he said "Okay" and he ate pretty good...

He was pretty tired... so we left and headed home...  we obviously hadn't expected this to happen and didnt bring a change of clothes...

[3 days in the same clothes YIKES]

He will be going to a rehab place for a week to 10 days and then he can go home... please say some prayers for him... I want to see him get back home...

We are going back Monday or Tuesday to see him...  I'll keep ya posted on his progress...