Waiter at La Bella Italia took this of us Tues night for his last real dinner (non-hospital food) for a month!

Jan 3rd: The surgery will be 4 hrs long and involve most of his butt being shifted to get healthy tissue into the wounds. Yeah, yum! We have to be at the hospital at 6:30 AM! It will be at UCSF and we live in San Leandro (east of Oakland) so it's not very close. And I'm a nightowl so his parents may have to roll me into their car ;) Actually, I got Tylenol PM that I hope will help me sleep. FI got no sleep at all last night. Been a bit edgy about the surgery. I would be, too, if a doctor was going to move my whole backside around!

Jan 4th: So the surgery is done and went well. It took 6 hrs instead of 4. We had to be there at 6:30 AM so we had to get up at 4:30 AM. I just got home. Drew's dad got no sleep last night. My stomach is doing flips so I'm sticking to beef broth and saltines tonight. We talked to the plastic surgeon immediately after the surgery and saw pictures of what was done. It was actually cleaner than I thought it would look. They moved skin/tissue and muscle from his thigh to cover the wound on his butt cheek (this is PG I promise!) and skin/tissue/muscle from his hip to cover the one on his tailbone. He doesn't remb anything and has no pain. Just really tired. He came out of the anethesia in time to enjoy the Rose Bowl and begin eating soup and popsicles.

Here's the bad news. After spending 7-10 days at UCSF he will be transferred to a rehab center for 2-3 wks. He will be bed-ridden for 3 MONTHS. We were orginally told he would not need extra recovery time after leaving the hospital and would not need the special sand-air chamber bed anymore. But we know everything is an estimate. 4 hrs means 6 hrs. 2-3 wks means at least 4 wks, etc...We will def need the bed for at least 3 more months. I had anticipated and warned him I thought it would be at least 6-8 wks of total bedrest. Hopefully, it won't be a total shock to him since he doesn't know that 3 months bed-ridden part yet. It was a shock to his parents who were thinking more like a month because that was the timeframe they gave. This is why I wanted to do our engagement photos before he went into the hospital but we can't control the weather! Spring will be a great time to do that, too.

He will be very immobile for a few months which will be very hard. Still not sure how it will work out logistically because it is such a fragile area. He won't be able to get out of bed AT ALL. Yes, that means that and that. The ordeal is long from done but today was an important success. As I've said this is a marriage/life committment by fire for us. By the time we get to the alter we'll have been thru what some couples go thru in a lifetime and some never do. I'll update with more info when I have it. Thank you so much for your prayers and positive thoughts!!!!