Update.

Short and sweet...I am not much above grunting to communicate right now.

Thanks to all who sent email, texts, voicemails over the past couple days. I really appreciate it even though I have had NO opportunity to get back to anyone. THANK YOU!

For now...

Dad: doing well, all things considered. The results of cardiac testing weren't so rosy but we were able to avoid bypass grafts and use stents to take care of the situation. He is doing guardedly well post-procedure and will be coming home to my place for a bit after discharge. Mom is already holed up here and we're making it work quite well for now.

C: After my dad's procedure, as I was in recovery, I got a call from C's daycare. Talk about your heart dropping into your stomach! As it turned out, I had a little girl not feeling so well. I got her home and found a fever of 103. I medicated her and we're doing better today. Still, it was quite the depths of hell last night with her up hourly. Teething pain galore and those ears are causing grief again. I am simply not used to a gal who doesn't sleep the night through anymore...whew, am I ever grateful that is her norm. Her surgery (ear tubes) is Wednesday and I expect it will clear up many issues for my girl. The worst of it will be not being able to feed her most of the day because her procedure is in the late afternoon. Otherwise, C is doing wonderfully. We have come MILES in a very short time. At this point I think it is me who gets upset when there is a meal with less time en face (if we are out). She does fine but I dislike not being able to read her face all the same. The best move I ever made with her was closing out the outside world and keeping us one-on-one aside from work responsibilities. We BOTH became much less stressed (well, in some ways it was hard for me but stress-relieving in seeing that she did so much better). We are beginning to venture out a bit more but I still keep her world pretty small for now. I learned where not to push things when I was away for about 30 minutes (job responsibility) and she did not like the arrangements I had for her while gone. She was completely safe but, unfortunately, only one of us knew that. I am still getting over that guilt but, hey, lesson learned.

Me: that *$(# Aircast is NOT cutting it. I have to be honest and say the pain is getting worse. It's bad enough that I may actually LISTEN and do something about it when I get a chance. I need all the surgeries behind me and then I can focus on that. I've actually got a bit of a swagger with my limp now ;0) Groovy.

Back to real life. Hope to be around more often a few weeks down the road.