"What a blessing..."

Dad has been doing well these past couple of days. The pressure in his eye has gone down quite a bit along with most of the pain in his eye. He says now it's just more of a discomfort than it is pain. His neck has been the source of the most pain for him. So please continue to pray for him to be able to relax and get some restful sleep.

The Lord has been good to him/us with the help of many friends and family. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for dad. Mom's parents left today. They have been a huge help! NaNa was better at putting the eye drops in than most of the doctors! To the right is a picture of dad resting his neck on PaPa in between eye drops. Also thanks to everyone who has cooked a meal, brought CD's over, flowers and stopped by to visit!

(Our sweet neighbor, Darlene)

(NaNa & Mom putting drops in)

Recovering in style...

(We've dubbed these the "Ray Charles sunglasses")

Well, if you are going to have to sit around for three weeks to recover from surgery you might as well look good doing it right!?! These were the "cool" sunglasses dad got to wear when he left the eye clinic last Friday. We thought we'd show you how "cool" he looked in them. You know what the funny part is? Mom took dad's last pair of sunglasses he got from the eye clinic like this and actually wears them when she's driving! She always says and I quote, "they are great, they fit right over my glasses!" I'm just thankful she didn't "discover these wonderful sunglasses" when I was in high school! I keep telling her she's not old enough to be wearing those yet. :-)

Anyways, a quick update on how dad is doing. Unfortunately it is going slow. He's had a lot of trouble sleeping since the surgery. It's just about impossible to get comfortable and his neck is really sore. His feet have been swelling as well from sitting so much. We try to get him up every hour so he will not get blood clots in his legs. Please continue to pray for him to be able to find some level of comfort so he can rest. Rest seems to always be the best medicine when you're hurting.

Dad is a trooper though! I haven't heard him complain once and everytime I ask him how he's doing he says, "Oh, I'm doing alright, a little uncomfortable, but I'm good." His spirits were lifted yesterday as he was able to see many friends and family. He was able to come downstairs and eat with some of the family last night. Thank you to Darlene for cooking such a wondeful meal! The baked Ziti, homemade bread, and coconut cake were incredible!

(Larkin & David scarfing down some food!)

Lose a mustache, gain an eye...

(Before)

About 40 minutes into our drive to Durham for dad's surgery yesterday mom leaned forward from the backseat and touched dad's upper lip. I happened to notice her do that out of the corner of my eye and then glanced over to dad to see what was up. Well..... what was "up" was dad's upper lip! I could see it! For the first in my lifetime I saw my dad without his mustache! Not only that but it was the first time mom had ever seen him without his mustache! She said she really liked kissing him without...but that's all I remember her saying about that. I think I blacked out for a minute when she started talking about kissing dad. To the right of the page you can vote whether he should "keep it clean" or "go back to the Tom Sellick look".

Knowing that he was going to have to keep his head down for three weeks which would likely make his nose run quite often he figured it would be best to shave the mustache. Having his head down for three weeks, a runny nose and losing the mustache..... all worth it in the end for hopefully improved vision!

(After)

Day of Surgery and beginning of recovery

Hey everyone,

I created this blog to help keep all of you informed on dad's surgery and his recovery. I/we would like to start by thanking everyone for your prayers and support. It most certainly made a big difference today and last night. Dad slept really well last night (night before surgery) which was a huge blessing because he isn't known to be the best sleeper in the world. With the anxiety of the surgery and the recovery it was wonderful for him to have slept as well as he did. And because he probably won't have a good night's rest for another 3 weeks.

We arrived in Durham today around 10 am and had an hour to kill before dad went in for pre-op. We were able to listen to a great sermon by dad's new favorite pastor Mark Driscoll (besides Nathan Kline and Jeff Miller of course) about how Jesus is our Prophet, Priest and King. I'll try to find the link and post it later on. Then we were able to go on a little walk and enjoy the beautiful day before dad went in for pre-op. He went in for pre-op around 11 am but unfortunately had to wait quite a while. He went into surgery around 2 pm and got out around 3:45 or so. Dr. Toth is the doctor who performed the surgery..... what a blessing to have her as dad's doctor. She's very personable, caring, down to earth and not to mention brilliant! She said she was encouraged with how the surgery went. They were able to remove scar tissue around the hole in his macula and put a gas bubble in his eye to help his retina lay flat with the ultimate purpose of closing the hole in his macula for better vision in his right eye!

Our three biggest prayer requests right now are for dad's eye to of course heal nicely and that he would retain and hopefully gain some of his vision in his right eye. Secondly, that he will be able to keep his head down so as not to irritate, disturb or move in any way the gas bubble they put behind his eye to help close up the hole in his retina. Finally, for dad to experience some measure of comfort. It is difficult to see him so uncomfortable and in such pain. In the 4 hours or so we have been at the hotel so far he has moved from the bed to the chair to the bed to the chair at least 10 times. He just can't seem to get comfortable and the pain in his eye is at it's worst right now. This of course will get better in time.

Mom would also appreciate your prayers as she takes care of dad. Just remembering to put in all his drops and medicine and doing her best to make him comfortable. She can feel helpless at times and wants so badly to make him comfortable. Having plenty of experience being taken care of as her child..... I have no doubts she will be a GREAT caretaker!!! :-)