the last 36 hours

ben was admitted to the hospital thursday morning.  surgery was scheduled for 12:30 p.m.  we were very lucky to have our friend dr. david raphael as our anesthesiologist. he made this experience  go so smoothly, especially hooking us up with our wonderful orthopedic surgeon , dr. grauer.  the surgery took a little bit longer than expected....2 1/2 hours but everything went very well and he did end up with some very impressive 7 - 8 inch incisions!  ben was alert and responsive as soon as he got to the recovery room, where i was able to meet up with him again........which made me feel very relieved. those are not fun waiting hours. luckily, my dear friend, nurse nancy raphael (dr. david's wife) stayed with me the whole time and brought me
a goodie bag with snacks & mags to keep me
distracted.  thanks nurse nanc....

up to room 219.  ben was hooked up to 9 monitors, grrrr!  he didn't like that at all!  friends soon came to check up on him and bring balloons, chocolate and gifts.  his spirits were good, but the pain was high and he was getting tired.  so, we settled down for the night.  i stayed the night with him on a fold out cot. sebastian spent the night at a friend's house, nicole came over and stayed with gabi for the night and got her off to school in the morning. ben and i both slept until 8:15 a.m. - quite a treat!

ben even looks studly in a hospital bed!

ben was finally allowed to eat whatever he wanted and ordered a nice healthy hospital food bfast.  we watched invictus......then read and relaxed for the morning.  a good friend phoned to see what she could bring ben for lunch - without hesitating, he ordered a wendy's double baconator!!! he was starving........
then the best part.......

dad is here!

he rushed from the airport to see his son.

ben was finally released from the hospital around noon and then guess where he was a couple of hours later...........

back on the field!!! he just couldn't stay away from the fairview homecoming game tonight.

sab wore the football jersey they cut off of ben in the emergency room.......he wore it as a cape

gabi and sidney were wearing fairview colors and cheering from the bleachers - 
go knights!

we are so happy to all be back together again and that ben is on the mend.........thankfully, all is well