Nov 5 (Monday) - 10:20pm

As a great day winds down there is much to be thankful for.   Jeannette's all important surgery went well; very well in fact, and her new bionic knee is in place and the operation appears to have been a complete success.   In fact, on doctors orders, tomorrow she is scheduled to leave the bed, and begin light "weight bearing" walking therapy!   Wow.  WOW!!!!!  The surgeon said that everything went as planned, and he was able to save more of her femur than he had initially thought would be possible.    The bottom line is all of the news is good tonight. She's still pretty drugged up, of course,  but resting comfortably, and everyone is pleased and excited that things are moving in the direction they seem to be going.  She's in a regular post-surgery room; not intensive care, which is another indicator that things are going well.  All of the post surgery "numbers" are where they want them to be, and the blood counts and O2 levels and temperatures are A-OK.   

So, as I write this note the summary is that tonight is a great ending to a pretty hectic day, and it went off well although at times there were moments that any true chicken fleeter would recognize as a faux pas.    These chicken fleet shenanigans make for a story worth telling, and are certainly a part of the hospital adventure.  And the adventure started with the hospital arrival.  It seems that when she moved from Providence Hospital to St Elias Extended Care several months ago, the hospital sort of "forgot" to check her out, so consequently, when she arrived for her surgery, they didn't know how to "check her in."   Not only that, her medical report in the computer hadn't been updated since she "went missing" so that was a mess that Rich and Sam and the doctors all had to sort out with the hospital staff before the surgery could take place.    In the end a lot of supervisors were down there with red faces busily typing away on the computers trying to bring things up to date!  I should also mention that on the way to the hospital the ambulence driver asked her if she was having her baby?   Umm.  

There were other minor snafus too, but through it all Rich and Sam were on top of things, making sure the staff was aware of the critical things in her six inch thick medical file that otherwise might be overlooked.   The one lesson well learned is that a hospital patient always needs a concerned advocate who is aware of things that have been and can make sure the important stuff doesn't get forgotten.   Simple things like which medications give her nausea, or what drugs she can't tolerate in pill form are important things learned the hard way, and with Rich and Sam right there they made sure none of them had to be learned again.    

But other than the little adventures with the hospital administration, things went well overall, and now that the left leg has been fixed it's time to be thinking of the other one.     For the right leg the planned surgery originally set for next Monday has now been set for the Friday after Thanksgiving.    It's a much less of a deal from what I understand than what they did today, but it still is important and must be done.    I think the plan could change; as I'm sure Jeannette will have an input into the schedule slippage once she is fully awake and talking to her doctors.   Her stated goal is to be home not later than Christmas, and I think secretly she was hoping for Thanksgiving.   Of course, so was I.   But right now its just great to be thinking of her coming home in the forseaable future and its very exciting to actually be looking at an end date where she can be at home, and this long saga of notes and blogs can be closed once and for all.--John