Hello to everyone. Sorry for the lack of updates...again. ONce again, as if this is news to you, my life has been taken over and things are crazy. Emily and Erin both made it home last week. Emily left school early so that she could be with Papaw for his surgery. He had come major surgery and she wanted to see him before he went under. He did GREAT and has blown all of us away with his recovery! Both Erin and Emily hit major snow storms on their trip home. But both arrived home without any problems (just much later then expected). Emily got home and ended up in bed for 2-3 days with a horrible cold; I suspect more from exhaustion then anything else.

Erin got home in the evening and we were at the orthopedic center by 6:00 the next morning. She had her first surgery that morning and we were home again by 10:00am. The surgery went well. The doctor said she needs to stop tearing her meniscus (with a huge smile on his face - knowing that there is no way of stopping her nor stopping a tear from happening). Evidently she doesn't have much meniscus left. If she keeps tearing it, she is looking at arthritis setting in. As for the patella tendonosis, he said her knee was in pretty bad shape. He went in and cleaned it up. He said she did well and he seemed happy with the surgery. I am praying that it relieves her pain. She is in a brace that nearly covers her whole leg. She is on crutches, but has to be off them by Wednesday in order to be allowed to have her shoulder surgery. Today is the first day she has put any weight on it. She is feeling ok, but hesitant to push it so quickly today. She plans on trying to walk some without crutches tomorrow.

She is not going back to Houghton for the Spring Semester. Instead, she is going to take online courses at Columbus State and then transfer back to Houghton in the fall. There just isn't way she can manage everything; physical therapy, showers, and more surgery. We did alot of thinking and came to the conclusion that she would be better being here. After experiencing the surgery and watching her, I am confident that we made the right choice. I asked the doctor what he thought and he assured me that we had made the right decision.

Well, I am very busy right now. My niece and nephew are here with us. We are heading out the door soon.