Darrin's Surgery

As many of you remember, shortly after Darrin came back from Iraq he started developing nasal polyps. The polyps completely block his sinuses and cuts off that sense. Which means not only can he not smell, or breathe well, or sleep well, he also cannot taste. Imagine if you have a very very bad sinus cold.....and that's how he lives, day in and day out for years. He never complains too much about it but it makes him miserable. He had a surgery back in 2004 or 2005 (I can't remember which) to clear out all of the polyps. It worked for a little while but as of late, they had really really been bothering him again. Yesterday he had another surgery. The CT scan they did a couple weeks ago showed he had a 70% blockage. But when they actually did the surgery, I guess it was much worse. The surgery took almost 2 hours longer than expected and put me slightly on edge (he's STILL not out, yet??) They also, supposedly, fixed his deviated septum.


The last surgery he felt pretty horrible. He had lots of bleeding and LOTS of pain. This time Darrin had a different doctor and he did things differently. I'm happy to say that this time around he's doing MUCH better. He's not on any pain medication (as of now) and is just trying to get as much rest as possible. He still has some bleeding but not nearly as much as he did last time. John and Cindy took Rylee for two nights so Darrin could rest and recover without a two-year-old running around. So that helps out a lot. My parents took Jake yesterday so I could solely focus on Darrin. Brenda is coming by this week to help with the kids too. I have to say, we feel so blessed to not only be close (relationally and in proximity) to family, but have family that are so in love with our children and so eager to help us. I don't know what we would do without them!! And to all of our friends and family -- thank you so much for your love, prayers, facebook comments, phone calls and general support. You guys are amazing and we're so blessed to have wonderful people such as you in our life.

So here's a couple photos - a before and after! :) He's looking much better today and that thumbs down is probably now at a "thumbs neutral". :)

BEFORE: Happy Darrin, ready to go in and get this taken care of!

AFTER: boooo. Sad Darrin because he feels like he got hit by a truck!