Thank you to all who prayed for my husband during his emergency brain surgery.  Al fell on the ice about three weeks ago and hit his head on the front walk.  OF COURSE, I wanted to take him to the emergency room and, OF COURSE, my stoic, bull headed, stubborn, hard headed (well, not really in this case),  John Wayne type husband refused.  (He, OF COURSE, will never have the opportunity to refuse to take my medical opinion again,  He may have won the battle, but he has certainly lost this war!)

After falling, Al developed a headache which lasted a couple of days, but no other symptoms until Monday this week when he told me that his left arm had suddenly gone numb.  We went to the closest ER where he had a CAT scan which showed bleeding in his brain (but at least it showed he had a brain!).  Instead of consulting with a neurosurgeon there, I had the squad take him to Riverside Hospital where my own neurosurgeon, the  brilliant and gifted  Dr. Mark Hnilica, practiced.  Al had an older blood clot, like pudding I was told, on the brain as well as fresh bleeding. Dr. Hnilica performed surgery yesterday, cleaning out the clot and stopping the bleeding.  Al was quite a long time in recovery, but when he got into the room, he was lucid, hungry, and changing from my sweet, ill, needy husband rapidly back into my beloved curmudgeon self as the first words out of his mouth were not “oh, my darling, beloved, devoted, sweet, loving wife,” but, “when do I eat?”    Dr. Hnilica was pleased with the surgery and felt that there would be no deficits.  Al will be in the hospital for about a week, but prognosis for a full recovery looks good. 

Al’s daughter Carolyn and husband Ron and children, Audrey and Darrin, as well as our dear friend Sara stayed with me during the surgery. Many thanks to friends Cindy, Nanette, and Sara for taking care of our dogs and to my niece and nephew, Annie and Eric , for taking a few dogs back to the farm to stay during this time.

Most of all, thank you for all of you who have prayed for Al and for me. Thank you to God for once more taking care of us through another medical ordeal and for answering our prayers.  God is good!

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