Update on Pop

--
So I am a bit behind on updating on Pop. Let's start from where I left off....

--

Nana and Pop came home at the beginning of June after being in Texas (either in the hospital or in a hotel) for 2 1/2 months!! The girls were SOOOO excited to see their Nana and Pop and we of course spent a lot of time at their house! In that 2 1/2 months, Pop underwent two rounds of aggressive chemotherapy, which had no effect on the tumor. They discontinued the chemo after the second round. He then had 25 radiation treatments - 5 days of 2 treatments a day and then 15 days of once a day treatments. This did in fact shrink the tumor.

--

Nana and Pop left for Texas on Sunday, July 19th. We spent that Saturday at their house and a "get together" was held. This picture was taken that night.

--
--

Bright and early Sunday morning, we were all at the Pilots for Christ hangar at the Monroeville Airport. This is such an amazing organization. They flew them to and from Texas for both trips. While we were there waiting for Nana and Pop to get there, the Pilots let the girls pick out a stuffed animal to keep and the girls ran around the hangar having a blast! They got to climb the steps to the plane and Bella even sat in one of the seats.

--
--

Once Nana and Pop arrived at the airport, hugs were shared and tears were shed. The girls said "bye" to their Pop (certainly a site to break a momma's heart) and didn't understand why we were crying (despite trying not to).
--

--
A picture was taken of everyone at the airport.
--

{Paw, Pop's dad, holding Brooklyn with blue boots; Nana holding Bella with red dress; Pop with hat and glasses; Carol, Pop's sister in yellow shirt; Me; and Brannon holding Brady}
--

The plane taxied off and eventually took off into the sky - everyone waved at Nana and Pop!
--

Brooklyn with blue boots; Bella in red dress; Kylee Anne in pink dress; Kameron next to Kylee Anne, Ryan (can only see his arm and legs)
--

After seeing the plane off for as long as we could see - we all went to McDonald's for a gourmet breakfast. The kids had a great time getting to play and eat together!
--

Pop had surgery on the July 24th. The surgery was expected to last from 6 to 8 hours! We were at the hospital at 5 that morning and they got started with the actual surgery right around 8 am. By 10 am, the surgeon had completed the tumor removal and the plastic surgeon had begun his part. The plan had been to do a procedure where a flap of skin from his abdomen would be used to cover the wound (the wound had been open for almost 3 months and the surrounding skin had been exposed to the radiation, so there was a concern that they would not be able to close the wound without the flap). As it turned out, Pop had lost weight and they were able to close the wound with the existing skin without having the do the "flap procedure"! By noon - the surgery was complete and Pop was in recovery! Everything went amazingly well - with absolutely no complications and only took a total of 4 hours! We were able to spend a few minutes with Pop that evening but he was not in a room yet, so there were only certain visiting hours and were for short time intervals. He was finally put into a room that night (a regular room - not ICU)! By Monday, they had him up walking around the hallway (with assistance and a walker, of course)! By Wednesday - he was released from the hospital to the hotel!

--

Fast forward approximately a week to today!! Nana and Pop are HOME!!! They got home this past Wednesday and are home for about a week before they have to go back.....When they go back next week, they will hopefully remove the final drain (they left it in because they felt that the more he was up and moving around that more fluid would be generated and they did not want that fluid to build up) and the staples and sutures!

--

All in all - everything went great and Pop is doing well. He still has a long way to go to get back to "normal" but he is definitely on his way and we couldn't be happier!
--