Brad drove himself to dummer school Monday, so everything seems to be fine. He has a follow-up visit with the surgeon next Tuesday.

Brad is having flashbacks to his prior surgery…walking around holding a pillow to his chest. Predictably, that’s freaking Rhonda out also.

Here’s a picture of what they took out of his chest.

No, you pinhead, the fork wasn’t in his chest…it’s for perspective

We are home and Brad is sleeping. We all got up at 4:30 this morning, so I might need a little nap myself. His Darvocet will have worn off by the time he awakens, so we’ll know then whether he’ll be in pain today.

He’s in recovery for about an hour or less, then he’ll come back to the area next to the waiting room.

They are already through at about 8:10. Sewing him up now…

We got up here at 6:00 and they took him back around 7:20 or so. Liz is up here, so we all went downstairs for a good hospital breakfast. We can track his progress on TV monitors in the waiting room.

Brad doesn’t seem scared at all. If I had the pain he had the last time we were here, I wouldn’t come near the place! Dr. Koury said that sometimes he can get the bar out with one incision as the sutures he used are dissolvable, but most of the time he makes two incisions. It’ll take about an hour, then they’ll keep him around awhile to make sure he can hold food down and that all systems are functioning. He’ll be sore this weekend, then can probably go back to dummer school Monday.

Brad has the surgery to remove the bar next Friday (Friday the 13th). It’s on an outpatient basis! That is just unbelievable, but we’re told that he can go to school (summer school) on Monday. We’ll see how it goes.

Our last appt with the UMC doctor was on the 9th. He still says that Brad has Scheurmann’s kyphosis, but I’m not totally convinced of that. He said that at this point, there’s no need for any surgery until after his bar comes out (7/20/07). In fact, surgery may not be necessary at all. His overall curvature has gotten better since the last x-ray was taken in August, so that’s good. It went from 79 degrees to 63 degrees. Dr. Haber sent Brad to the UMC brace people and they measured him for another brace which should be ready soon. I’m hoping that he will be able to wear it. The brace man also took an impression of his right foot to make an orthotic for it since his right leg is shorter that the left one. It’s only slightly shorter, but it’s enough to throw off the balance of his pelvis. He should be able to wear it with any shoe as it’s an insert.