Whatcha been doing Joy?

Oh, thanks for asking!

I've been sitting at the hospital.

For days.

Here's the story.

You see, my father-in-law Tom got a combo pacemaker/defibulator put in (his 2nd) before Christmas. He went back out of California for work and noticed that his skin was red and puffy around the incision. Withouth being totally gross I will skip to the part where he had to get an emergency flight home and go straight tot he hospital for them to remove the pacemaker/defib.

They went in through the original incision to remove it - - no problem, right? WRONG.
As they were removing the leads from his heart, one of them would not budge. And they did not want to tug obviously, because what would be worse would be to tear the heart.

Cue the open heart surgeon.

For one little lead, he had to completly crack him open... Awful.
The one little lead was infected. Badly. Thank God they decided to open him up.

My teenage daughters have been a flutter of tears. Especially Rikki, who is so sensitive and worrisome. She was so scared for her Pappy. Monty had to take her up there at 8 am the day of the surgery for Pappy to reassure her that he was going to be okay.
He is recovering nicely now in the hospital.
Thank God.

The funny thing is, he and I have always been "civil" with each other but thats it. He didnt like me for years 2-4 of my marriage to his son, and I really didnt like him for not liking me. He wanted Monty to date (and hopefully marry) a girl he went to highschool with named Lisa. He even called me Lisa from time to time. Are you wondering why I didnt like him? Wondering why I didn't smack him?
But he has mellowed over the years. He's more laid back and I think he realizes that I am here to stay after 11 years with his son. Well, I don't know if it's because I provided 4 of his grandchildren, or what but he has changed toward me. He actually is sweet to me and compliments me. He will even introduce me to people as his daughter-in-law... huge change. He even told me the other day that he thought I was the best of all of Monty's old girlfriends to choose from... uh, thanks... I think.

He finally realizes how much I take care of his wife while he is gone and how much I love his rotten son.

So that's it... that's what we have been up to. Oh, I am inserting a pic of Tom, Kathy and the girls from Christmas.

Oh, BTW, he is doing much better now. Going home this weekend.