Update #154

Never thought I would marry a high maintenance man. Dave certainly keeps us both running around! :-) Good thing it will end (at least he keeps promising it will) once he has surgery.

Speaking of surgery, we met with Dr. Muskat, Dave's surgeon, on Monday afternoon (the reason that I never posted again). We were hoping he would say that Dave was ready for surgery soon, but for as optimistic as we both are, we've seen his wound heal and change enough in certain areas to know what it probably should look like everywhere before the doctors go in to fix his fistula, and as we expected, it just isn't there yet. Dr. Muskat is impressed with Dave's progress, but he estimates at least two more months before we will be back in the hospital for what we hope will be his last major surgery.

In some ways, for as frustrating as the dressing changes can be, I think we both know that the break will be nice. The insanity of last week with his move, the excitement of the wedding on Saturday and the combination of the past seven months of...well, everything actually makes me look forward to having a routine, for as odd as that routine will be. And yesterday was the first day that it felt like we got close. Dave's nurse came in the morning to do some blood work, then I actually went to my office (crazy!) to catch up on some youth ministry stuff. We ordered a washer and dryer (we know we'll need it for all of Dave's dressing supplies - and all of my clutziness) then spent the afternoon organizing papers and medical bills and filling out disability insurance information. I headed out to the grocery store when PT and OT stopped by to do their evals on Dave. Then, we actually sat down to dinner at the kitchen table, hung out with our friend Todd, and closed out the night by watching TV. All of those mundane details are the things that make me scratch my head about bloggers - "Why would you share all of that, and why would anyone else want to read it?" - but I think Dave and I are both really starting to appreciate the calm, the ordinary, the quiet.

It's 10:00 a.m., and Dave's still sleeping, so I guess I should go try to wake him. The blogs will continue, but if we miss a few days, know that I'm just sparing you the boring details of what may soon start to feel like ordinary life. At one point, things as simple as brushing teeth were huge milestones for Dave. Now, the only excitement in that act is arguing about the best way to squeeze the toothpaste tube. :-) Quiet is good.