Sierra and Brooke

came to the hospital with mommy today to visit Opa. Opa was overjoyed to see them. Sierra got right on the bed with Opa and the 2 of them enjoyed snuggling together. Brooke sat with Opa too, but only for a little while. She was more interested in going for walks. Sierra made Opa a get well card with lots of her favourite stickers and she also coloured it. She also put a Dora bandaid on Opa's boo boo and even put one in her card in case he needs another one.

Herb is doing very well but has not been up on crutches as yet. The physiotherapist never came up to see him. I brought in the crutches that he used in 1980 when he had knee surgery but his nurse did not get him up either. I hope they get him up tomorrow as he is scheduled to be discharged on Monday. My son also came in to see him today and he will be staying with us for a few days to help Herb out at home while I go back to work on Tues. Mike is on a temporary lay off from work so the timing is perfect.

When Herb came to the hospital prior to his surgery, he was asked on a scale of 1 - 10 how bad the pain in his ankle was. He told them 6. Yesterday it was 12 1/2 and I could tell that he was in a lot of pain. Today he told me it was a 9 1/2. He is on an antibiotic, tylenol 3 and he still has the morphine pump as well. Every time he gives himself a morphine shot, he gets very sleepy and falls asleep. The instructions for the morphine pump says that he should give himself a shot before he gets up but he is afraid that if he does, he will fall flat on his face as it makes him so woozy. When he had the cartilage removed from his knee in 1980, he had to turn down the pain meds as he could not get up and walk around while on them. The nurses at that time were amazed at how he gritted his teeth and forced himself to walk the day after surgery. The only time he accepted the pain meds was when he was in bed and not planning to get up and at night.

He has been doing exercises in bed, wiggling his toes and lifting his leg and moving it in the air from side to side. He has a half cast on his ankle along with flannel wrapped around it. He will be getting a full cast in 2 weeks but will not be able to put any weight on his ankle until they xray it to make sure the bones have fused properly.

He is in very good spirits and was so happy to see his little munchkins and his children today.