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...

cont'd

Bless him... I pray his healing is swift and smooth and comforting. That looks like a lot of soreness... very tender. Thank you for sharing... its nice to have a picture of your husband as well.. Great well and healed soon. Prayers really do work.

Antidote, my heart was breaking for him yesterday. He had deep bone pain from the leg they took it from (an 18" scar, because they had to get bone PLUS an artery connected to it PLUS a good vein, PLUS a good-sized piece of skin to fashion into gums for him again). The procedure is getting quite famous; it's called the "Flap," and we have reconstructive specialist - Dr. Eid - whom I believe is from the mid-east, who did the graft & microsuturing of the blood vessels. If the vessels fail, the bone graft fails, we have the Doppler. Tomorrow, Wayne will be out of the "danger period."

He also had "road rash" pain of the thigh, & facial pain from having all that stretching & shifting about of tissues & nerve endings, a sore place where they put the feeding tube to his stomach & a headache on top of it all.

Told him, "This is the last day of the bad pain, let's breathe through this together," and put some lavender oil on his gown where he could inhale it.

God made my words come t

You are doing a marvellous job. Thank you so much for sharing I can feel how intensely intense it is.. Bring on the healing and repair.