Post Operative Patient

Okay, so I uploaded these pictures last week with the intention of getting this post up right away...and now a week later, I still haven't written in it.  Oops!  Things have been a little busy around our house.

For those of you who didn't know, Dan had surgery on his shoulder almost 2 weeks ago now.  He has had issues with his right shoulder since college -- probably an old throwing injury from his quarterback glory days -- and since Miss Ellie helped us meet our health insurance deductible, he decided to go ahead and have an MRI to see what was going on.  What they found was a bit of a mess, a torn labrum (the same injury Drew Breeze suffered before his time with the Saints), and surgery would definitely be in order.  Long story short, the surgery went very well, and we are thankful to be on this end of things and not have it looming over us any longer.  The first few days post surgery would pretty rough as a result of a bad reaction to either the anesthesia or pain meds (or both), but now we're both adjusting to his one-arm-edness :-)  It's amazing the simple things that become monumental tasks without the use of your [dominant] arm!

But any of you that know Dan know that he's one of the most capable & determined people you will ever meet, two traits that are serving both of us well right now.  He even managed to get socks & tennis shoes on and tied by himself this morning...just think about doing that with only your left arm for a second!

We've also been incredibly blessed to have his wonderful parents living so close.  Both stayed with us in the days following the surgery, and his mom has continued to come and go since then.  I honestly don't know that we would have survived all intacted without their help.  And the girls have both loved having lots of Memaw & Pepaw time!!  I don't know how to begin to thank them.

And these two are truckin right along like nothing ever happened.  And because of that, let me again say...THANK YOU MEMAW & PEPAW!  (We also we're blessed with the company of my dear old Mom this past weekend, giving me yet another break.  I'll write more about that in my next post.)

On Tuesday last week, after quite possibly the longest 4 days of Dan's life, he was itching to get out of the house.  We had not yet been down the Natchez Trace this year, one of our favorite drives in TN, so he decided he'd like to just sit back and watch the world go by from the window of the van.  And of course, do a wee bit of hiking (because Dan can't possibly sit still for that long!).  So we loaded up the van & Memaw and headed down the Trace.  I'm quickly running out of blogging time at the moment, so I'll just let these pictures speak for themselves:

We had a wonderful time, and I really felt like this was a turning point for Dan in his recovery.  God is gracious in the midst of challenging times!