This past week while visiting with Johns family, John's dad had a hip replacement surgery. While Bill's hip surgery went well, he developed a blood clot behind his other knee during the surgery. When he woke up he was in excruciating pain, but not from the hip replacement. His other leg hurt tremendously. Then they noticed his foot was turning grey and they couldn't find a pulse. After an ultrasound confirmed a blood clot, he was rushed into another surgery, just a few hours after his first surgery. They had hoped to do an endoscopic surgery, but it wasn't successful. They ended up having to cut from his groin to a little past his knee, remove the clot and then put in an artificial artery. It was another long surgery and he didn't get out until about 2am. Luckily they saved his leg. He is still in a lot of pain but he's now doing well.
The surgery was on Thursday. On Friday morning John went to the hospital with his mom for a few hours. I kept the girls home since I wasns sure how they would react. Bill was still in a lot of pain too and we didn't want the girls to upset him. Saturday before we left to come home, we decided to let the girls say goodbye to grandpa. We had explained what had happened (just that grandpa had a bad hip and the doctors fixed it, we didn't see the need to explain the blood clot and the following surgery) We explained that he was in pain still so they needed to be careful, also that there would be tubes and stuff. We also told them that at the hospital there would be other people who were sick or hurting so we needed to be quiet so we didn't disturb them. They said ok and we were on our way. As expected, Larissa was scared. She clung to me the whole time. Skylar was not afraid at all. She walked right into the room and right up to grandpa Bill and took his hand. There were no iv's in that hand so she knew it was alright. She was very quiet and just smiled at him. She eventually asked a few questions, to grandpa and also to the nurses. She heard them say he was going to get blood and she wanted to know what that meant. She also asked the nurse what all those tubes were going into his other arm. They told her they were medicines to make him feel better (antibiotics as well as iv fluids) Most of the time she just stood there and smiled this sweet angelic smile, and grandpa just smiled back. It was the sweetest thing to see. When we told her it was time to go, she very quietly leaned into him and said, I love you grandpa, you feel better ok? Then John lifted her up so she could give grandpa a kiss. I had tears in my eyes. She was such a brave, sweet little girl.
I really wasn't too surprised by either girls reaction. Larissa is just a much shyer, quieter child. She is a little intimidated by the unfamiliar, which is perfectly fine. Skylar has always been more interested in differences. We saw a little boy in a wheel chair once. He looked just like any other little boy, except for the wheel chair. Skylar asked me why he was in that funny looking chair, and I said, sometimes legs just don't work like they should and that chair helps him get around. He's just like you and I. There's no reason to be afraid. She was ok with that. A few weeks later we saw an old man in a wheel chair, and she told me, it's ok mom, his legs just don't work right but that doesn't matter, can I go say hi to him? She's very sensitive to injuries. Great Grandpa Fred had a spill recently and still had a bandage on his head when we got there. Skylar was very inquisitive, but seemed to know just what questions were appropriate and when to stop asking. She just kept asking him if he was ok and she wished he didn't have a boo boo.
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