Good afternoon, AU family!

I have so much good news to report regarding Wayne's recovery from surgery last week!

Today was a HUGE day! Physical therapy had him doing chair pushups (dips), etc. Then came Speech therapy & he was able to put the one-way valve on his trach & surprised the therapist with the strength of his voice! He got his reward - that much hoped-for cup of ice chips! (He has had nothing by mouth since last Wednesday).

Cheeky monkey! He had asked for some water & a swab to rinse his mouth out... As I turned my back to fetch something else, I caught motion out of the corner of my eye... the sly bugger had taken a sip from the cup!

He will officially start liquids tomorrow, but they want to be sure he's not leaking into any tissues anywhere from the mouth.

He is cleared to get a wheelchair, even with all the IV pole, He's very keen to get rolling since I told him it would reduce the swelling in his arms & hands...

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Glory to God in the Highest!!! 🙏❤️😇
Prayers are powerful! 🙏🙏🙏
So happy for you both!

ALL GLORY TO OUR HEAVENLY FATHER!!!

Auntie M, Dennis1776 has been practically holding my hand since surgery day. We had everything planned out for the kids to be here in NOLA vacationing during the surgery, but then it was pushed back a week... But that's OK because Dr. Hasney was here to do his Stage 1 of the surgery himself, freshly back from vacation. Still, I was all my byself in the big city & he knew it & held my hand through the 10 LONG hours of surgery. Bless his darling wife for sharing her husband with me!

Wayne had 3 surgical teams - Dr. Hasney removed the old jaw bone (and told me later he was able to take 30% less than he had thought because the bone was still healthy on the right side)! I'm claiming that as part of the healing God began BEFORE the surgery!

@QakeLady told me last Wednesday that she & her mom had prayed he got out of surgery early & so it came to pass!

Dr. Hanson spoke with me at 6pm to tell me it went great & finished over 45 min. early..

Dennis1776 is a true gem!! 😇
So glad he was able to be there for you!
He and his wife are 2 in a million! 💑

You are so right, Auntie! That couple are 24k gold to me. I consider them FAMILY by now!

How generous is that? If you're a 9-year survivor/thriver after a similar surgery, to offer to help someone going through their own surgical dramas?

On top of that, in Dennis1776 & his wife, I have discovered we have many like interests. We will be sharing garden seed before long & I am going to give him the recipe to preserve eggs at room temp up to a year!
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Wayne was moved out of ICU a day EARLY, as @QakeLady had told me. The first day of step-down care was a bit hard. Coughing up stuff through the trach & needing suction a lot... Lots of pain when moving from bed to chair & back, etc.

Today is a new story! Physical therapy had him doing chair pushups (dips) & were very pleased. Speech therapy had him talking using the 1-way valve & then rewarded him with a cup of ICE! I was watching his face as he had his first chip... he was in HEAVEN! He was NPO since Wednesday...

But wait! There's more!

Dr. Hasney was in last night, very pleased with his progress, & said Wednesday he will have liquids & applesauce & jello (which he hates)... Then he said, "once we get him eating well, we'll get that trach out & he can go home." The implication being that this could happen as soon as this coming weekend!

Dr. Hasney is a bit like Q; he never gives the 40,000 ft view, but only dispenses drips of info, LOL. I have to ask direct questions and at first, he was disturbed that I knew what questions to ask, LOL.

The residents have been pretty good, too, but I dislike the way they throw trash all over the place & leave it in the bed, the swine! That's an insult to pigs, because our pigs were much neater.

Well, I know how to "innocently" take them down a peg or 2... It's necessary to prevent them from overinflating their egos, LOL. They really don't know how to take me... and I refuse to bow & scrape... holding them accountable for...

not getting the correct boot & it taking 3 days for them to get it figured out & ordered. The tech delivered right away. I knew what the doc meant, but the team of residents did not, so I had to draw a danged picture for them... and then they had to run back to Dr. Hasney to be sure... (but I bet they didn't because they wouldn't want him to know that they didn't know what they were doing).

I knew because I had required one for my 12 leg fractures back in the day, LOL.

So he's really working hard to help himself get stronger & get the heck outta here so he can have a decent night's sleep without beepers, buzzers & the doppler, which has a constant heartbeat sound...

He's "pregnant" with a "baby bone" in his mouth & the Doppler is making sure the grafted artery & vein remain patent. That's the big deal, because if the blood flow fails, the whole graft fails.

I've had to argue with nurses that Dr. H wants a HANDHELD Doppler scan every 2 hours, plus visual check, regardless

of the implanted bedside monitor... They tried to fight me on this, then in came Dr. Freeman while the nurse was here & I asked the question so innocently, so that Dr. Freeman would answer & say, "Yes, it must be handheld Doppler & visually evaluated every 2 hours (they had missed this - only checked about 2x/day!). So the new day nurse made a point of drawing a box around this order, so that the other nurses would see & comply.

Most of the nurses here have been absolutely angels. I knew they would be. God whispered in my ear as I was packing & I packed a boxful of my soaps to give as thank-you gifts to all of Wayne's caregivers. Nurses always have dry hands & the alcohol gel doesn't help at all. They're surprised & tickled to death when I invite them to choose whichever they like.

I'm sure the view from his window is helping him as well... The Mighty Mississippi & the famous bridge, tugs & tankers passing.

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Wayne asked me to come online this afternoon (not easy between suctioning him & fetching & helping him in & out of bed) and give thanks to all the AU family for the massive load of prayers & well wishes. We both feel angels all around us & I KNOW they were carrying me when I was so worried a few days ago...

Special thanks to all who donated to his GiveSendGo campaign. You guys leave us overwhelmed with gratitude toward you & toward God, for giving you the hearts to help. You have all made what we thought would be impossible... more possible.

Wayne has the devil by the tail today and is biting him in the ass! Such is his determination to get stronger & get out of here & home.

Smiley is a recent acquaintance God put in my path in the meat section of the Piggly Wiggly. He's caring for our dogs. The deal was he'd go by once in the morning & leave them all with 2 cups of food & give them a little attention.

God is helping Smiley, too, because he's addicted to...

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..the unconditional love of dogs. He goes down to the river bottoms every day, looking for dogs people have thrown out because of the hard times... He takes them home, feeds them & finds them new "peoples."

Anyway, he says he feels "reinvigorated" after spending an hour or so with them & he sometimes spends two... Plus, he's going twice a day just to pay them attention & play with them & lead them on "expeditions" around the property, LOL. No way they'd get this kind of attention in a kennel.

And while our pit bulldog, Bella, was his "instant friend," our lab/bloodhound, Freya, took a bit longer to convince. She nearly attacked him the first time he tried to enter the gate, as I watched from the window inside. Our gentle Freya is a mighty protective girl, it seems! Who knew?

The puppy, 4-mo old Rock, is his boy now... He's a bit lost because he's always looking for me, but he'll just be the happier to see us when we come home this weekend.

We will still have a hard row to hoe after getting home, but we won't have to deal with the trach, as it will be closed before he is discharged. We will be able to focus on resting & eating & believe me, I have a lot better food in mind for him than soy formula...

I'll give him the shakes I made for myself when I was sick from the mold & couldn't eat. I got down to 130 lbs & none of my clothes fit. But shakes with bananas, organic whole milk, yard eggs, extra egg white protein (I was going to use to make natural bath bombs, but hey!), turmeric & maca root... and chaga & reishi mushroom powder when his tummy can handle it, plus acerola cherry powder for natural vitamin C...

With the quiet of the country & the joy of having his dogs around him, he will heal a lot faster than in a roomful of machines, being poked & prodded every hour & waked up during the night.

I actually went through my list of followers the other day, asking God to give a special blessing to each person, by