Implant Day

Well, I think I left my camera at mom and dad's house with some pictures on it, (will post later) but I'm just letting you know that my daddy had successful cochlear implant surgery today at St. Vincent's Hospital, across from the House Ear Clinic in downtown LA. 

I spent the night last night at their house, then we all got up at 3:45 and left for LA at about 4:30, with me driving. There was a surprising amount of traffic but it moved right along and we got there in plenty of time. The surgery was from 7:00 to 8:30 and was successful. Mom and I had breakfast down in the cafeteria, then read and talked... plus mom also suffered from a little writer's block while she worked on the preface to dad's autobiography, which I'm in the process of formatting for printing. 

We joined him in his room at around 10:30 and he was sorry not to be very conversant, and slept quite a bit.  By 12:30 he was wanting to get home to his own lazy boy chair, so they started the discharge process. I went to bring the car around and it just poured and poured all the way home, and is still pouring. The rain came down so hard while we were on the 5 freeway that at times my wipers, on high, didn't hardly touch it! We drove safely home at 25 to 30 mph the whole way, then I stayed at the house for a cup of tea and to be there while mom paddled out to the pharmacy for various medications. 

Daddy opened the first of the gifts that Erin sent for him to open - one a day for several days, and that was lots of fun! He had said he wanted to get home and see what Erin had for him to open. Thanks for your prayers and concern for dad... we're praying that he doesn't get any infection or other complication. Elective surgery at age 86 is always a little risky, but he's a healthy specimen and we're very hopeful that this will greatly increase the enjoyment and usefulness of his future years.