PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED

I has been a busy week here in Rochester, Minnesota, but with the busy part comes the great news!! They did not have to remove all of Dave's knee and cast him. The top portion of the replacement was loose and they were able to just remove and replace that piece on Monday. He got to come back to our home away from home today at about 11 am CST. He is currently resting in the recliner in our hotel room and Mackenzie is napping on the couch. Chase is being my big helper and helping with laundry and watching a movie while coloring pictures for me in our room so that he stays quiet for the resting members of the family.

To summarize the events of the last week - The kids and I left Wenatchee on Friday the 20th and flew to Seattle and spent the night there. We then flew from Seattle to Chicago-O'Hare and then on to Rochester on Saturday. We got in early so Dave wasn't even at the airport yet but when he arrive, the kids spotted him in the parking lot and ran full-on to him. We were all happy to be back together.

On Sunday, we took the kids up to Bloomington (near Minneapolis-St. Paul) to the Mall of America. All the way on the 90 minute drive they kept complaining that they didn't want to go to the mall. Well, the complaints ended when we practically had to drag them into the mall as right there was a huge theme park all done in Nickelodeon characters. They had a blast on the rides. I will post pictures from home as the internet here is SLOW!!! Now anything the word mall is mentioned, they are excited to go and disappointed when it is just the Apache Mall here in Rochester. And for those of you who know I am a shopaholic - we were at the Mall of America for 5 hours and I went in 3 stores, the rest of the time was spent on ride with kids and one of the stores I went in was the Build A Bear store for the kids to make a critter.

Dave had to report to Rochester Methodist Hospital (one of the MANY building called "Mayo Clinic") at 9:30 am on Monday. They got him into a pre-pre-op room where he stayed for about 2 1/2 hours and we could come and go from that room. Then they took him to pre-op where we couldn't go and he stayed there over 3 hours. At about 3 pm they took him to the OR and made the first incision at 3:23 pm. He was out of surgery by a few minutes after 5 pm. The kids and I got to go up to his room at noon and stayed there till the doctor came to us at 5:15 pm with the great news about his knee. The kids and I left then and he got back to the room about 8:00 pm.

Tuesday was a pretty good day. They removed the drain from his knee that morning and he began PT with walking in his room. The kids and I visited for short times as that was easier for all of us. We ran a few errands and came back to the hotel for a swimming time. They love the pools here at the hotel. They have a kiddie pool that is only mid-thigh deep on the kids, a hot tub and a big pool. The kids can play in the kiddie pool and the hot tub without me in the water. :)

Wednesday was more therapy for Dave and removal of the compression bandages. We visited a little more that day. When we weren't at the hospital we went to a ceramic studio called Color Me Mine and painted some ceramic things. Mackenzie painted a dragon bank, Chase painted an airplane and I painted a bigger ice cream bowl for Dave. The kids really enjoyed that. We went to Applebees for dinner and then discovered the play area at Apache Mall and they ran and played for 45 minutes there before getting Cold Stone ice cream for the evening snack.

Thursday was a typical third day post surgery. He was in a lot of pain and was CRABBY! He was also 4 days post-cigarettes too so that didn't help I am sure. He really didn't like the PT that day. We stayed away most of this rainy day as that was easier. We watch a movie in the room then hit the pools again. This time we had all three pools all to ourselves and they had a blast for 1 1/2 hours. We got dried and re-dressed and went to Red Lobster for dinner. They had a blast. We had a great waitress Mandy who played with them and even arranged for them to get to pet one of the live lobsters they have in a tank there. They thought that was really cool and yes I took pictures!! They we took dessert to Daddy and came home to bed.

Today we had to get up and started a little quicker to be able to pick him up. They like to discharge by 10 AM and they mean business about that. After Chase helped me get the dressing supplies and his prescritions while Kenzie stayed with Daddy, we were off to catch the shuttle back to the hotel. His nurse today was Kim and she was great with the kids and with Dave through the discharge process. Kenzie has been quite the nurse to Daddy and Chase was a big helper to me today. An old childhood friend of Dave's named Cheryl that lives in Mankato, Minnesota is coming to town today to see him and meet the kids and I. She came last week before we got here and had dinner with Dave but she wanted to meet us and see him after his surgery. We are currently scheduled on flights home on Wednesday but will continue to try to get home sooner.

Hope all is well and Praise the Lord for answered prayers (thanks to all of you who have been praying for a good outcome for Dave).