I woke up once during the night and called to see how the surgery was going. The nurse stated that she hadn’t heard, so assume it was going fine – they would have been told otherwise. I went back to sleep to be woken at 6:45 – Sir was out of surgery! It went faster than usual and he was doing fine and in the recovery room.

Yesterday I read through the journal I kept on the caringbridge website. It reminded me of some of the things that occurred and some of that I’m just going to copy here. I also read through the guestbook. There were 76 messages left for Sir on that site – and over 2000 “hits”. One of the things that impressed me through this ordeal was the attachment people formed to my husband. I mean I knew he was a nice guy – but he is a rather quiet, in the background kind of guy. But so many people contacted us to want to help him. There were messages from all over to him: Arizona, California, Colorado, Minnesota, North Dakota and England! Very cool.

So anyway, I drove in to comfort my husband as he recovered from surgery. I was also reminded from a posting on my mother’s site that this was going on with my dad at the same time…. I had meant to meet up with my parents at one of my dad’s appointments. So I ran over from Sir’s room to the pain clinic where they were at. I was in a bit of pain (because when Sir went into surgery – I quit my chiropractor appointments) but I thought I was doing okay. So I went up to the receptionist, leaned on her desk and asked directions to the pain management area. She gave me directions and asked if I wanted a wheelchair. I looked at her and said that I’m sure Dad was already down there. She looked puzzled and asked again if I wanted a wheelchair – that she would push me there. I groaned and said, “But I’m not the patient!” She apologized and just said that I looked tired and to make sure I took care of myself.

So I got to my husband’s room. And he looks out of it. He laid there, mouth slack with all these machines pumping around him, etc, etc. I held his hand. He opened his eyes and said “water.” Well he couldn’t have water, but I gave him one of those spongy things on a stick with ice water. I thought he was going to suck the sponge off. Then he said softly “I got to go to work.” I thought: the guy is hallucinating! Then he slowly turned his head and winked at me.

I was standing at the foot of the bed and looked at the drain bags. I looked again at one bag, and then I looked at the nurse and said “is that pee?” Yes it is. The kidney was working already just hours after the surgery!! I asked – what’s his blood sugar? She said last checked it was 97. The pancreas is working. I couldn’t believe it. Already! Wow!

The first person I called was Julie. “Julie! The kidney and pancreas are working already.” “Praise God,” she said and added “All week we were praying for a miracle. We got our miracle – it just went to Sir.”