Not more than a half hour later they wheeled Chuck back to his room. It turns out that the surgery will be too complicated for the surgeons at Lutheran and he will have to go to St. Joe’s. I am thinking, not good, that means we can’t be together. Because the doc seems to be pretty casua about it all, so I didn’t worry. As they set it up with the other hospital, Chuck and I hung out some more. I just told him it would be another bump to get through and then we could start our lives over again. He didn’t seem to be especially worried either.

At one point they were going to airlift him to the other hospital, he was excited about that. But, the wind was too strong. Somewhere in there, talk started to change from removing blood clots to amputating his leg. Unease set in, but, I put on a happy face for Chuck. The surgery was scheduled for 5 pm and the ambulance picked him up at 4:30, not going to make it in time for sure.

I gave him a hug, told him it was just a bump, he gave me a high sign and they wheeled him out of my site.

TIme passed slowly. Finally at 6:30 I got a call from the surgeon and he explained what he was going to do. He was going to try 3 ways to do the surgery before he considered amputation. I said, SAVE HIS Life. He can survive without a leg, he can’t survive without a life.

Every 2 hours one of his staff called Katie to let her know things were going smoothly and not to worry.

At shift change, my nurse came in to say goodnight. We started talking and she remarked that she felt like she knew Chuck and I, that we had met before. I didn’t know how to jog her memory. One conversation went into the other and I ended up telling her the story of Charlie. She gasped and said, I remember, I was there. She told me how she had been the one that had helped me trace Charlie’s handprints on paper for us to keep. It was amazing. And then she said, “Linda, this means that Charlie is in the house. He is with Chuck right now in surgery. I think it will be ok, because he has someone that loves him by his side!” We both marvelled at this and I agreed.

Twelve hours later, the doctor called and told me that he had found a bypass artery and was able to save the leg. I was kind of blown away, 12 hrs? So I said, cautiously optimistic? He said yes.

I posted this on facebook: Cautiously optimistic because Chuck was also on a breathing machine for 12 hrs. Temper your happy with that, but, yeah, let’s DANCE! AND fall to your knees in appreciation for our medical community and in the purest form of love you can ever express – your prayers. Thank you so much!