Heading South - Again

Sea Angel, with Peter and crew Johnny Stout aboard, departs Oxford today for the three-week trip to Tampa Bay.  Nancy is doing well and continues to recover from surgery at home for a few more weeks.

On The Home Stretch

18 days after surgery! We haven't killed each other - not even close.  The "boat" has gotten smaller even though the size has not changed. The first two weeks were sleep and try to eat.  I didn't have to use the turkey baster after all.  They gave us lots of syringes. They are great for water, Boost and meds. A flat spoon just fits into my mouth if I'm careful.   We tried to walk a little bit farther each day. One day we came across a tv show being taped. Turned out to be The Good Guys with Tom Hanks' son, Colin, and Bradley Witford playing the leads. It's on Monday night on Fox.

Last Thursday was our first big adventure besides walking the streets. We went to the Texas State Fair. Traveled the train. Peter had his first corn dog which he liked but it didn't like him that night. The craft and quilt show was wonderful. I wanted to send pictures to all my crafty friends.I think Kathryn would look cute in this dress.

I may try to make this Turkey next year.We only know four people in Dallas and we ran into one (Eve, from Dr. Wolford's office) at the fair.  Saw a few live stock. The only thing that I could fit into my mouth for lunch was the apple sauce from my bag, and ice cream bits that had to be cut into thirds. The dog show was very entertaining. The black lab jumped 28 feet into the water to catch the frisbee. The three legged dog jumped 23 feet. We lasted four hours then took a two hour nap.   

Yesterday was a six hour adventure to the mall. We had to change trains ( of course we got off at the wrong stop both ways which added 40 minutes). It was worth it because we saw the movie Secretariat.  Wonderful!!!

Found some great lobster soup. Couldn't find anything for Kathryn that was under $100. that she needed but it was fun looking.  Peter wouldn't take me into Tiffany's. The hospital told me to leave all my rings at home and I miss them.  I was hoping for an upgrade. I still have the mark on my ring finger that says we are still married so that will have to do.  Today is Sunday which of course means football/sewing.

We see Dr. Wolford two more times before we leave. He says everything is going great. Most of my pain is after I do my exercises.

It is a small world- Peter 's cousin Michael Kynett's wife Gail grew up in a small town in Pa. which is the same town as Dr. Wolford.  In fact Gail's brother had a car accident with Dr. Wolford back in the 50's. 

We are counting the days until Sea Angel gets back into the water (5) yea! 

Thank you all for the cards and emails.

Adventures in Dallas

I'm prompted to bring this neglected blog up to date because Nancy's recent email to family and friends about her TMJ surgery in Dallas failed to deliver the pictures.  So here's the email we tried to send.

Hard to believe it's been a week out of surgery. Want to show you our room in the hospital. My thoughts were so positive on day of surgery. The trust I have in Dr. Wolford is so great. His fellow is good too; he was a surgeon already but wanted to learn newer stuff from the master.  In Recovery the night after surgery I shared a nurse with only one other person. Didn't even have to say anything, I would raise my hand with a syringe and more water would come. I drink so much water I started to drive them crazy so they doubled my syringe. It was really cool. I didn't have to worry about having to go to the bathroom. Peter's work started early Thursday; it takes forever to get all the medications into me.

Check out the room Dr. Wolford's  patients get. The picture was taken from my bed to the adjacent sitting room.  Drinking from a syringe is routine because I can't open my mouth very much, but I'm not wired shut.  They gave me Boost and baby food.  If anyone needs baby food we have half a case.  Now I know why Kathryn wants to eat real food.

 

The operation was complicated, took 8 hours.  In addition to Dr. Wolford and his fellow, Dr. Walsh (my orthodontist from Key Largo) was there to observe. They replaced my right jaw joint with an implant, very easy to see in the x-rays.  They also moved both my upper and lower jaws forward and widened my mouth with bone spacers.  There's a plastic splint in my mouth to keep everything in place.  That will be removed by cutting a couple of wires.  Now my tongue isn't too big for my mouth any more, and my airway is much bigger so I don't have to keep my nose in the air to breathe.  (Russell, the TMJ is my JAW, not my knee.  I can still kick Peter around, I just can't chew him out.)



They kept me in the hospital an extra night. Hard to leave a room like that. They didn't want me to catch any of the "nasty hospital bugs" so they talked us into leaving on Saturday. No one was coming in so it was a slow pace to leave.  Here is the wonderful "hotel" room we have now for the next two weeks, it's about 12 x 18.  We think of it as boating.  It's more room than we had in the sailboat.  That's why we got a trawler.  The recliner is my bed.