Howie’s dictating this to me, so consider it straight from the H-Man’s mouth!
Let freedom ring!
01/12/06
Walking Tall!
01/12/06
Howie has his laptop at the hospital, but hasn’t felt like typing. I am pretty pooped myself after a seemingly interminable drive home in dense fog. This will be short entry, but full of good news. Howie walked for a bit today. He also had regular food, bypassing the clear liquids stage. Dr. Kebaish said he’d progressing really well and should be able to go home for the weekend…Maybe even on Friday!
And now, a drumroll please…
Howie Broyles: Bionic Man
01/11/06
Howie has his cellphone at the hospital now and is happy to be able to keep in touch with friends and family without having to resort to a calling card. He called me this morning around 10:30am.
Pain meds are good
01/10/06
Howie’s doing well today, eager to start sitting up and moving around tomorrow. The pain meds are such a blessing, allowing him to relax and rest.
Out of ICU today!
01/10/06
Hi, everyone. Sorry I didn’t update the blog yesterday evening. We saw the surgeon at 6:30pm last night and he said everything went extremely well. I’d already told his nurse I was going to give him a big hug, and I did just that. He looked a little sheepish, but hey. That surgery went on for 9 1/2 hours and he needed to know he was appreciated, I thought! Best news, though…
Surgery waiting room: 6:00pm
01/9/06
Still going….Err, waiting. I saw Dr. Kebaish’s nurse as I was coming back from the restroom. She told me they were finishing up and Howie has done well. God love him, it’s a big incision and a lot of screws and rods in his back. They’ll be using staples to close him back up. Stitches were our first choice, but his nurse said that after a long day in the OR, it would take a very long time to close up an incision like that with stitches. I guess I can see her point, but staples are a b*tch when they start pulling and itching.
Surgery waiting room: 2:45pm
01/9/06
The OR called to report that everything’s still going well and Dr. Kebaish was still installing the instrumentation in Howie’s back. She estimated he’d be another 2 hours or so in surgery. Someone on DG asked just what instrumentation is and we got a little crazy when posting an answer. Heh….