//----------------------------\\ Adventures With Grandpa (tm) \\----------------------------// Tuesday, February 15, 2005 Edition #002c Special Bonus In-Week Addition ____________________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S 002.1c: Grandpa Gets New Hip Does chin-ups to celebrate 002.2c: Colophon ____________________________________________________________ 002.1c: Grandpa Gets New Hip Does chin-ups to celebrate Early Tuesday morning Grandpa went into surgery for a total hip replacement. The doctor had told my mom and I not to bother coming to the hospital until noon as Grandpa wouldn't be able to see us and there wouldn't be anything to do but wait until he was out of recovery. I called at eleven and the hospital reported that he was in recovery as scheduled, so that was good news. At about 12:30 we went to see Grandpa and he looked great. He was sitting up in bed, alert, smiling, asking for lunch, and wondering when his surgery was to happen. "You just came back from surgery," I told him. "It's all done. You've got a new hip!" He was astonished. "I don't remember anything. When did it happen?" I was surprised he was so awake and alert, but of course he was not completely put under as they did a spinal block to just numb him from the waist down. Jerry Baker, the pastor of my mom's church on the Oregon coast, had arrived at the hospital at 7:30 a.m. and prayed with Grandpa before the surgery. He was still there when we got there, so we all went to lunch and met Uncle Phil at Shari's. After lunch, my mom and I went back to see Grandpa again. I went in first as my mom was on her cell phone (no cells permitted in the patient areas). Grandpa was playing with the handlebar on the traction bar above his head. He pulled himself up a few inches off the bed with his left hand, then did it with his right. Then he did it with both hands. His legs were immobile, all fixed up so he couldn't cross them and covered with squeeze pads that automatically massage his legs to increase blood flow, so his upper torso was all he could really move, but he easily lifted himself up off the bed. I was amazed. Here he was only a few hours out of major surgery and he's doing the equivalent of chin-ups! When I commented to Grandpa that his physical activity had changed his heart rate from 65 beats-per-minute to 105, he got all excited and proceeded to do more pull-ups. "Did it change?" he asked, sounding like an eager child. "Did it go up?" We saw the surgeon, Dr. Teal, for a few minutes. He tickled Grandpa's toes and Grandpa successfully wiggled them. The doctor said everything had gone beautifully. No complications at all. They hadn't even needed to give Grandpa more blood (he'd warned us that blood loss was a possibility). Tomorrow Grandpa is scheduled to stand up on his new hip! ____________________________________________________________ 002.2b: Colophon Publication Title: Adventures With Grandpa (tm) Frequency: Weekly Price: $1,000,000 per issue Publisher: Marc Zeedar Author: Marc Zeedar Photographer: Marc Zeedar Copyright: Contents (photos and text) (C) 2005 by Marc Zeedar All Rights Reserved Telephone: 877-364-5922 Website: http://www.zeedar.com/grandpa/ To add, remove, or change your subscription details; make suggestions or complaints; report typos or errors; send millions of dollars; or send Grandpa or Marc a comment, send email to . If you'd like to telephone Grandpa (he loves to hear from people and he'll chat like the wind though he won't remember the call ten minutes later), you may call him toll-free at 877-364-5922. ###