Arm Surgery

Dad will have surgery on his left arm sometime today. This is the arm that has a clot in it. I'm pretty sure this operation is not related to the clot itself. The clot is above his elbow (I think). An abscess has formed toward his wrist, but I think vascular said it isn't actually in the vein. They're going to do something with a vein in his arm to fix the abscess. I know that seems contradictory. I don't understand the procedure since I've only heard the info second- and third-hand. Hopefully I can clarify later. Pray that surgery is successful and no complications arise. Pray he gets some much needed rest while under anesthesia and that we're able to get back ahead of his pain as he comes out of anesthesia. He had a really rough weekend in terms of pain. We're all pretty worn.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One Year Ago—by Denise

Image
One year ago. It has echoed in my head and heart all week. I’ve recalled the everyday things we did with such ease. How our life was suddenly divided between before and after. Did I even say goodbye that morning when he left for work, hurrying to beat the heat and rain? In the land of before, I wasn’t always up as early as he left. I often packed his lunch the night before so he could grab it after a hurried bowl of cereal and get going faster. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple and a granola bar. Often it all came back home with him—he’d get so busy working, he’d forget to eat. He had a lot of tree jobs so he was moving through them as quickly as he could. There were several cabinet jobs awaiting his attention as well. He was working long hours in both areas in an effort to pay off our home equity loan. It was the summer we would finally be debt-free! I had my day scheduled—a stop at the hospital (not the one we would gather at later) to sit with my daughter while m...
Read more

Back to Work

Image
Over a year ago, someone from a Christian congregation in Monroe, Michigan called my dad and asked for a bid to build doors to match some he had built 20 years ago for the same facility. The process met several delays after the initial agreement, and my dad finally got the go-ahead to begin building the doors a few weeks before his accident. Not long afterward, Dad reached out to make sure my brother, Micah, had reached someone regarding that job to let them know it wouldn't be able to happen right away. Toward the end of this summer, Dad arranged for his best friend, Scott, who has been helping him take care of as many customers as he could to work with him on this larger project as well. They began acquiring the materials he would need, which included a trip to Detroit to buy wood at a better price than he could get locally. Scott's story is that when Dad asked him to help, Scott was sure he did not have the necessary skills to complete the job up to Dad's...
Read more

Nine Months Later—by Denise

Image
Disclaimer: this post was written on March 22nd, the nine month anniversary of Gilbert's accident. Due to illness and parenting, Lizi took a while to get it posted as she is the one who volunteered to take care of the site. All time references are from the perspective of March 22nd. ~~~~~~~~ We reached a huge milestone this week—Gilbert started driving again! At my request, (ok, insistence) he went through a driving simulation with a physical therapist at UTMC followed by a test drive, both of which went well. He drove home from that appointment with me only reaching for the grab-bar once or twice (no worse than when the kids were learning to drive. I refused to do first trips with them, too, for the record). So, here’s my thinking: I’ve conquered a load of tasks outside of my comfort zone in the last nine months. But I put my foot down on the driving. Quite simply, his first time behind the wheel was not going to be added to that list. Yes, I trust what he feels are his...
Read more