Wil's Hospitalization

This is not exactly the kind of blog update I had wanted to share, but cute baby pictures and video will just have to wait. If you are my Facebook friends, you probably are up to date, but here's the lowdown: Wil came home from work Thursday complaining of increased pain and discomfort in his lower back. Since the surgery last year, he's had good days and bad days, and we just sort of chalked it off as a bad one. We had planned to travel and Wil took a pass for a 4-day weekend, but we decided to use the extra days to just rest and relax. He toughed it out and went shopping with us around K-town, but by Saturday it became very clear that this was not going away and getting rapidly worse. He had taken more pain killers on Saturday than he had since the surgery and still could not get any kind of relief at all. At this point, he was unable to stand, walk, or sit up. We started Sunday morning in the emergency room, and 7 hours later he was admitted for pain management. Monday morning came the xrays, MRI, and CT scan, which were all very painful to him since standing or sitting up still caused Wil excruciating pain. We saw his PA this afternoon and found out that the degenerative disc that he had the operation on last year had REALLY reherniated and was pinning the nerve root. The PA was surprised to see that Wil was able to lift his foot about 3" off of the bed at all because the scans looked THAT bad. The doctors are trying to come up with the right mix of drugs and narcotics to control his pain to the point that he could come home to wait for the surgery, which could still be anywhere in the neighborhood of 3 weeks away. We'll find out more about which procedure it will be and exactly when the surgery will happen as the week goes on. Right now they don't expect to release him before Thursday. Chase, the boys, and I are doing as well as can be expected. Chase was very confused and scared of every nurse and doctor, who came into the room to stick needles in Wil's arm or move him in any kind of fashion. She yelled "Papa" immediately and repeatedly and reached for him when someone approached. If I took her out of the room, she would scream for him until she could physically see him again. Today was better, as the nurses lavished her with popsicles and I kept stuffing her snacktrap with animal crackers. The boys are unfortunately getting an extremely short end of the stick, minus the whole pain issue, as Chase and I leave for the hospital early in the morning and don't come home until just before her bedtime. Paddy nearly broke his legs sprinting up from the basement to the kitchen, where I was playing back a message on the answering machine left by Wil. I wish I could make them understand what's going on and that he would come home soon. I'm probably not going to have much energy type up long updates here but will keep up with Facebook. Thank you for your kind words and prayers. It stinks right now but I know everything will be alright. Please continue to keep my Beloved in your thoughts and prayers.