Unfun things - continued

Well, the fact is, you can make all the plans you like. God and the US Army will do as they like. We planned for Harris to have a pre-op appointment on Tuesday afternoon and be admitted early Wednesday morning for surgery on his heel. At the pre-op appointment, the doctors decided to admit him then so he would be first in line Wednesday morning. Harris had nothing with him for hospital admission. He doesn't need much so I just took a few items to him the next day. He was indeed the first case on Wednesday morning. Surgery took about 2 hours and we were on our way back to his room by just after lunch time. We then planned to have all the tubes - drainage coming out, meds going in and a couple of others - removed on Thursday morning and for him to be released. The epidural tube they used to numb him from the waist down came out easily first. Within an hour, the pain was getting pretty rough. He took oral meds and eventually got an IV dose of something but in the meantime, he was one miserable puppy. The ortho doc told us that this was one of the most painful breaks a person can have. By 1:00 this afternoon, Harris had sure moved it to near the top of his list. When the injection alone did not make a big enough dent in the pain, plans changed again. They hooked him back up to a pump that allows him to push the button every 6 minutes until he feels better. Thankfully by about 4:30, he was able to finish sentences and was not sending me to the nurses station every few minutes to ask when something was going to happen. His care has been excellent - this is a bad break and surgery. There's just no way to go through it without pain. Hollis brought us dinner about 5:30 and we both ate. I stayed until nearly 8 as I've done all 3 evenings and then headed home. I cannot imagine being there alone or I guess I should say, I cannot imagine leaving him there alone - he handles it just fine. This afternoon for distraction we both downloaded an app on our iPhones for Hangman. We put our phones in 2 player mode and gave each other words to figure out. We laughed - it was way better than those hours when he was hurting so badly. We are planning again to bring him home tomorrow. I just can't wait to see if God and the US Army have a similar plan!