Josh's back surgery

We are now one-week post Josh's double spinal fusion back surgery.  Most of our family and friends know this surgery has been coming for awhile.  Josh had a less invasive back surgery about two years ago, which was successful and worked for him for a little over a year.  However, about six months ago, his back pain became unbearable again.  This has impacted nearly every area of our lives and he finally decided to have this surgery in hopes that it will reduce his pain by at least 50 percent.

After a lot of thought and deliberation, he decided to go through the navy doctor at Portsmouth Naval up in the Virginia Beach area.  This meant we packed the family up and headed there (about a 3 1/2 hour drive) for the surgery and for the three extra days he stayed in the hospital.  Luckily, our very good friends the Rapers, live in the area.  In fact, they had JUST moved back to Virginia Beach from Quantico one week before. They graciously offered to let us stay with them even though they were in the midst of a major transition themselves.  We were lucky.  I'm not sure what we would have done without them.  We stayed at their house, Alison watched the girls a couple times while I was at the hospital (including when I took Josh in for his surgery at 4 am!), and helped feed us.  Josh was in surgery last Wednesday for nine hours!  That's how involved this surgery was.  I was very nervous at 2 pm when I still hadn't heard from the doctor.  Luckily, everything went well, but he is still in a lot of pain.  He is looking at a long recovery, but we hope and pray it will be worth it in the end.

We went to dinner with the Rapers the night before Josh's surgery.  He requested Mexican.  Here is the one picture we took with them:

And this might be a little graphic for some, but here is his incision.  His staples just came out, so it looks slightly better now.

My parents have both flown out to help us over the next couple of weeks.  I am very grateful for their help as well.  Over the past couple of years, they have used all their vacation time to come here to help us through one thing or another (bringing home newborn twins, deployment, etc).  To be honest, it is during times like these that I really struggle with living so far away from family.  Usually I put on my big girl pants and deal with it, but it does get to me at times.  I'll be glad when we get through this summer.

And this is where I get my butt handed to me...

Ugh, where do I start.  I thought last week sucked.  I woke up Monday with a bit of a cold.  I was annoyed because it's the third time I've been sick since Josh left.  So apparently my impenetrable immune system is no longer impenetrable.  Tuesday, I still felt sick, but not horrible.  I went running with Cailin and the girls went to Mother's Morning Out at Garber.  Wednesday, I went to get the girls in the morning and Josie was having trouble breathing.  It really scared me, so I called the Koupals and they told me to bring her in a hot steamy bathroom with me, which I did and it helped a lot.  I brought her to the doctor and he prescribed prednisone to open up her airways and gave me extra in case Piper came down with the same thing.  Thursday and Friday, I felt sick enough that I contemplated going to the Now Care because my chest was so tight and I was having trouble breathing too.

Meanwhile, Jackson had surgery scheduled for Friday to remove a big tumor on his hip.  It was supposed to be a routine surgery and would help address the limping and the trouble he has moving that hip around.  The vet called Friday afternoon and said it was much more complicated than she was expecting, that the tumor was wrapped around muscles and nerves, that she actually severed his sciatic nerve while she was in there, and that she was recommending we biopsy it. :(  He came home Friday afternoon and I couldn't even get him up the stairs.  Heather helped me get him inside, then came back later that night and helped me get him out to go potty.  We won't know the results of the biopsy until late next week and pray that it's not the big bad C word. :(  We love our Jackson. 

Josie and I are finally feeling better today after a week of sleepless nights and loooong days.  Piper never came down with it (knock on wood).  I told her to stay healthy so she can take care of all of us!  We're also sans babysitter now after I let go the new one who did not work out last week.

Here's some proof of our crappy week:

Josie looking a little disheveled and not feeling so hot after a nap.  

 Poor guy is already getting sick of being stuck inside.  He hobbles over to his frisbee when I take him out to go potty. 

 Huge cut to remove a big, bad tumor. :(

Just fine, happy as can be.