Major Surgery and Major Cuteness

Last Friday Ryan had a pretty major surgery on his foot. An injury? No. He has lame feet. His feet are shaped weird and have a major curve to them and a very high arch, (which caused him to break his foot in high school.) A few years ago his right ankle started bothering him and it got to the point he couldn't run or jog on it anymore, it was too painful. It has gotten worse the last three years and the pain and discomfort has increased to the point that all he could do for exercise was swim, and even doing things like mowing the lawn or playing catch in the grass with Pierce were painful and causing him to hobble like an old man for days afterwards. We didn't want him to be dealing with the pain and we wanted him to be able to exercise and play with the kids. The answer was surgery.

We've been dreading going through with it, knowing it was going to be a long recovery- he will be in a cast and can't put any weight on it for 6 weeks. Which means no driving and no helping me do much of anything around the house for 6 LONG weeks. He will then be in a walking boot for another 6 weeks. The good news is the surgery went great. Once the Dr. got in there he saw it was even worse than he thought, he'd been planning to repair one tendon and to cut a wedge out of his heel bone and reposition it with screws. He repaired two tendons that he said were just shredded, 36 years of lame feet and they had had it. He also said the ligaments were in pretty bad shape so he repaired those as well, along with the most major part of the whole thing- cutting the wedge out of the heel and repositioning it with the screws.

It's going to be a long recovery for him but I am glad it's done, he'll be so much better off. We have survived the first several days and it's actually been better than I expected. The kids are loving having him home this week and even though he's on the couch or in the chair all day, they love the extra time and attention from him. He's home with his foot elevated for this first week and he'll be back to work next week. Were he'll need all the help he can get.

Here's a look at the scene around here now...


Day 3 post surgery, in his soft cast with a nerve block drip. This was his worst day, but by the end of the day things were improving, plus he was holding the sweetest baby ever, so how could he not be happy?


Day 5 post surgery, soft cast came off, Dr. said his incisions looked great and put him in a hard cast. Madi LOVES helping take care off Daddy, thank goodness!

And now for the good stuff...Major cuteness around here!

I am SO in love with this little boy! I'm convinced he is the best baby ever. Not only has he been sleeping through the night since 2 months (every night, 10 hours now!), he is so happy during the day! I cannot get enough of his smiles and and laughs and he melts my heart every time. Now that he is such a pro at rolling he is really loving tummy time!

This is what I find every morning when he wakes up...

Happy boy with lots of smiles, giggles and "talking". Have I mentioned how cute he is? Seriously, so in love.