Surgery day!  Slept very well last night.  LouAnn and the gang were up early and at the hospital to ensure they saw me before I went in.  There was a bit of a delay due to insurance issues, but soon I was gowned up and heading to the OR!

While I was under the knife, the nurses came by and informed LouAnn that they would be moving me to a private room after surgery.  Woohoo!  That way they could corral our big gang!  But it turned out to be  real blessing; it gave us a place to gather and hang out without disturbing Guenther.

I awoke in Recovery after about 90 minutes, and Dr. Krombholz came to see me.  He told me the surgery went well, and he was able to remove the disc material that had leaked outside the disc.

Once back in the room, I was naturally a bit groggy.  I couldn’t have anything to drink for an hour or two, so the nurses had given me lemon-sugar swabs to suck on in the meantime.  Or at least I THINK that’s what they told me.  We got a bit, admittedly groggy, laugh out of imagining the nurses coming into the room, seeing me with the swab in my mouth, and in a panic trying to explain to me in their broken English that it was a suppository.  The whole group was there to greet me, and I drifted in and out while they plied me for descriptions of anything I remembered.

My pain was pretty much under control.  The private room had a TV in it!  So that evening we were able to watch the World Cup.  A good, successful day.  God is good!

LouAnn was up early and took this sunrise picture from the B&B.

Showing the kids the gown I was supposed to put on….

Sweet Stefanie getting me ready to go!

Heading to the OR.  The tech at the foot of my bed – with the shaggy hair; the kids called him “Newsies Nurse” – was really sweet.  He ended up being tasked with taking my blood pressure every thirty minutes after the surgery.  I joked with him that they must be paying him 10 euros every time he took my BP, so each time he came in he would laugh and talk about getting his next 10 euros…

While waiting, Aunt Netter and Georgia worked on magazine-cutout collages.

Waiting…..

And waiting……

He made it!

Luckily they didn’t mine for deep, dark secrets….

This is me amused with myself over the “wait, Mr. Stumbo, that doesn’t go in your MOUTH,” scenario….

Papa and Jack sitting with me.

I was allowed to turn from side to side, but not to get up.

Getting to watch the World Cup.  The “listen, here” hand placed against my father’s arm must have meant I was giving a soccer lecture!  SO good to have him there.