Hip Surgery Done

I had total hip replacement surgery on my left hip last Friday, April 24, 2009. It hasn't been too bad with pain pills, etc.

Just before I went into the operating room, the anestheseoligist explained the two types of anesthesia that I could get. One was the general anesthesia where they put you out and have to put a tube down your throat to breathe. The second was a spinal where they gave you a shot in the spinal cord and you were numb from your waist down for 12 hours. I had read up on both of them and had decided that I would do the spinal. However, in his explanation, he mentioned that I might wake up during the operation and hear doctors talking and other loud noises. It made me hesitate when I heard that, but I went ahead with the spinal.

So at some time during the operation, I remember hearing the sound of a saw, a drill, and a hammer. I remember saying to myself that the anestheseoligist had been right, you really could hear those sounds and it didn't hurt! I was more amazed than concerned. I must have fallen right back to sleep.

Anyway, I thought that I would update the blog and let everyone know that I am still here.

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I posted anything. Janice has wanted me to post something (anything!) just to get the witch pictures off the main blog. We have enjoyed visting everyone's blog, even though we don't comment too much.

Nothing too much has happened since Halloween. We had family over for Thanksgiving and had quite a houseful. It was fun to get together with everyone.

We did spend some time at Christmas with Greg and Melinda and the grandkids. It sure is fun being around little kids at Christmas and see how excited they get. We made a special babysitting trip to Boise one weekend so Greg and Melinda could have a date and go to a special Stake Meeting with Elder Holland. We had alot of fun with the kids and even learned how to take care of Miles and administer his insulin.

We are teaching the 10 turning 11 years children in the Primary. Janice says that this is the first time she had taught Primary where the kids were old enough to read. We enjoy this calling and the kids are a little challenging, but it is fun. They seemed to like us and Janice always has something interesting for them to do. One day she showed them how a print press laid out the pages when printing the Book of Mormon. They were pretty fascinated by that so the next week we had them try it themselves.

As I am sure you know, Janice is my best friend. However, I have found a couple of very good new friends. (see picture). I have been limping around for about a year now and found out a couple of weeks ago that my left hip was bone on bone and I needed a hip replacement. Unfortunately, my right hip is not much better and will probably have to be replaced in the near future. As long as I was limping for that year, not too many people paid much attention, but as soon as I started using a cane and then crutches, people have paid a lot more attention. I guess props do make a difference.

For a long time, I refused to use a cane until I had seen the doctor. I didn't want to find out from the Doctor that there was nothing wrong and be embarrassed that I had been using a cane. Once I found out how bad it was, the cane and the crutches helped a lot.

My surgery is scheduled on Friday, April 24th. I don't know exactly when, but it should be in the morning. I am actually looking forward to it as it will relieve the awful pain.

I can't think of much else to say. I hope everything is going well with everyone.