The surgery was a success, everything went as well as expected the next few days will be critical in the ICU for the healing to take place but the Dr expects he will make a full recovery. He was able to remove the hematoma on the spinal cord and install the plate. His spinal cord had a tear but a nerve was apparently plugging the hole that stopped the fluid from leaking out, yet another unbelievable piece of luck on his side.

There is a very long road of recovery and rehabilitation ahead but the initial prognosis is very promising. He has initial movement on his left side, arm and leg. His right side has minimal movement that they expect to increase as healing takes place. But we know that every ray of good thoughts and prayers will continue him along his path to a full recovery.

They allowed us to come down to the Operating Room when they were done to see him before he went into the ICU. He was awake but groggy and very happy to see us. Kareen had no shoes on as usual.

Thank you all for your energy and prayers and love, please keep them coming. And thank you Jim for being as strong as titanium to get this far.

He is in surgery now, the procedure, overly simplified, involves making an incision in the front of the neck, drilling through the broken bone to relieve pressure on the spinal cord and then stabilizing the vertebrae with a titanium plate or recreating the the vertebrae with a bone and titanium collar. He is pretty much a candidate to be in the next X-Men movie, I can just feel it.

There is also a hematoma on the spinal cord that IF it can be safely removed they will, but only a very strong IF as the fact that he is getting movement back to his limbs suggests that it will overtime go away.

Dr. Mahadeo will have another neurologist in theatre with him, i forget his name, lets call him Dr. Who. They have a very strategic contingency plan and options of what to do in various scenarios. Dr. M did an excellent job of briefing us on all of these earlier so we have some ideas of what to potentially expect.

The total surgery will take about 3-4 hours he went in around 1:30, I am bad at math you can figure it out.

So now we all just wait. I feel an overwhelming combination of very excited and very nervous. Kinda like being at the top of a really large roller coaster…blind folded….wearing a velour pantsuit, a really jaunty one with a hat…Ok i’ll stop now.

They are taking him in now to surgery. We all had lots of hugs and kisses. He is calm and so brave. I am all outa funny right now.

He has been regaining mobility in his right leg (now to almost 70%) where it was more or less paralysed the past few days.

Kareen had been working on physiotherapy mobility for his right arm and the doctor was most thrilled with the results so far. So overall a great set of improvements, especially prior to surgery.
It is expected that he will likely be able to give a pretty solid donkey kick in no time and enjoy the view from his room, it’s quite lush outside. (*the last statement has no medical basis or validity, I am no doctor despite playing one on TV*)

Jim has gotten comfortable and is now snoring despite having a room full of people talking and laughing. I wish we had a cannon to fire or a bell to ring.

My current biggest regret is not knowing how to add audio and video on here.

Dr. Mahadeo has come in to give us the pre op talk and game plan. He is a gentle, stout statured man, with a expansive highway of surgical and medical experience behind him and the bedside manner of a God a very stout God.

He has calmly, professionally and practically explained a very, very complex procedure in a way that has left us all feeling confident and totally reassured. Even with the obligatory “worst” case scenarios descriptions we all know that this is right. My dad is exactly where he need to be right now.

This doctor has all of our faith and the knowledge that he has done this surgery over a thousand times before has calmed our wiggly, fraying nerves. I told him he was showing off, I mean it’s not like it’s neurosurgery… Oh wait.

They take him to the Operating Theatre at 1pm today. He is in the best possible hands.

Also Trudy is still ugly.

Nurse Gordon is a lovely plump woman with short pinky red hair that could likely be spray-painted on. She has just cheerily removed the breakfast tray from the room.

Jim instead opted to have a fresh juice that his friend brought for him. He gleefully and quite proudly told me that it has flaxseed in it so it’s doing his body good.

He is much more comfortable in his new neck brace and had a good night sleep for the first time last night. The new nursing facility is much more comfortable and his room has a lovely window with a view to a park, sky and hills.

He can of course only look at the ceiling above the bed but the view is nice for us. He can also really only see out of one eye as in the madness of trying to take his contact lens out his eyes Kareen picked up the closest eye drop bottle from his bag. It turned out the be the dish soap that he cleverly keeps in there to wash his lens container out. So his Squeezy eye is a bit red but doing fine after being flushed out with some glasses of water to the face. I think she did it on purpose.