Surgery

Tuesday night, 10:45 pm ....er, really, early Wednesday morning (if I were still on Georgia time) update:

Hey, this will be brief, as I'm standing in the hotel lobby trying to update on the public access computers. Blaine stole, er, **borrowed** a laptop from work and while it's great for e-mail, it travels at the speed of the Tortoise Express for internet and I just want to update all of you quickly --- all of you who have been kind enough to check in on Blaine, with your phone calls and e-mails and notes of encouragement in the guestbook. It really, truly, awfully madly deeply (hey wait, isn't that a song?) means a lot to us.

While I hate to say our time here has been "fun", per se, can I just say that Seattle is an awesome place??? Well, I don't fit in very well considering I don't drink coffee and no part of my face is pierced, but for our one, too-brief day of sight-seeing, the weather was perfect and browsing around the piers and shops and markets and Space Needle, without the little rugrats, was really great. (Don't tell the little rugrats I said that .... to be honest, I'm missing them already, although I'd deny it in a court of law.)

Surgery today went well, but was looooonnnnnngggggg. We were at the hospital by 5:30am, surgery started at 8am and lasted eleven hours. They removed his fibula (one of the bones in the lower leg, for you anti-anatomy types) and used it to restructure the oral cavity. I think Blaine is going to try really hard to use that as an excuse to get out of P.T. permanently at work, but the doctor assures us that after a week in a cast, and about six weeks of rest, he should be back to normal physical, leg-ular (is that a word?) activity. What's funny is that Blaine has fabulous legs. It's what attracted me to him in the first place. Kidding. But he was a catcher in high school and he really does have awesome, muscular legs. So muscular that after removing the bone, the doctors had to do a skin graft from skin on his thigh because there wasn't enough fat in his lower leg to close up the incision. Ha!!! NOW do you people understand why I say exercise is not good for you???? I could close a wound the size of the Grand Canyon with the cellulite on my legs!!! I told Blaine all that time spent in the gym wasn't good for him, but did he listen??? NO!

Anyway, he is in ICU now and will remain there for 24-48 hours, depending on how he's doing. He is on a ventilator, but was able to avoid a tracheotomy, so he'll be happy when he wakes up and realizes that. The surgeon said everything went great and despite his appearance (tubes and swelling and gauze and hoses and bandages everywhere .... ick .... now I remember why I'm not inclined to go to nursing school) that he will start to awaken tomorrow. I stuck around the ICU for about four hours tonight but he was completely out of it and I'm sure he will have no recollection of it.

So, bottom line, he's doing great ... we should find out in a few days if the blood vessels are all working .... and I'm pooped from sitting in a waiting room for sixteen hours today. It's like a plane ride, isn't it?? You're exhausted from doing NOTHING. So, I'll get a good night's rest tonight and try to update again in a day or two. I do want you guys to know that I sincerely appreciate the well wishes. Sincerely. Now, I just need to figure out a way to streamline the coffee into Blaine's feeding tube ..... or things might get ugly. Wish me luck. :)
love, Kristie
ps Caringbridge doesn't offer spell check and I apologize in advance.