Day 3 - February 16, 2007 Friday

Terry was scheduled to have all of his surgeries today - to fix his back, pelvis, arm, and finish with his amputated leg. First they would operate on his back. He had one broken vertebrae. They took the two vertebrae above and the two below and fused them all together. They used titanium to fix his back. The surgeries were suppose to last about 5 1/2 to 6 hours. The family received an update at about 3 hours - everything was going good. Finally at 5 hours, the neurosurgeon came out to give us his update. He said they were only able to due the back surgery. Terry's blood pressure was getting low and the anesthesiologist didn't want to keep him under any longer. The doctor said it took an hour to move Terry from his hospital bed to the operating table. The doctor said that the only thing holding Terry together was his spinal cord. The doctor was extremely surprised to hear that Terry was able to wiggle his toes. The doctor told the family that he did not know whether Terry would be able to walk again - just moving him and doing the surgery could cause him to be paralyzed from about the waist down. The doctor was very pleased with the surgery. The rest of Terry's surgeries would wait until next week possibly Tuesday. Lynn and Esteina (daughter-in-law) talked about how Terry read his Bible every morning. Esteina said that maybe Lynn should read the Bible to him. So Lynn read Psalms 103 and parts of Romans 8 to him. Family and friends continue to visit. The family is spending the majority of their time at the hospital.