April 8 10:30 am

Good morning, Just visited Neil. He had a OK night. (He reminds us that the the hospital is not a good place to rest.) The orthopedist came by and said the will do the surgery this afternoon. He said he will put the bone together and put a plate over it and screw the plate into place. He said he might have to do a bone graft as there are 14 or so bone fragments. The orthopedist said the surgery would take a couple of hours. Neil is ready. The physical therapist came by and sat Neil up for a few minutes (remember the medical term for sitting up? Dangling). She showed us the exercises for range of motion. Please pray for Neil's lungs.


Please pray for the full recovery of Sue, Shannon, Ruth, John and our other friends here. We were not able to talk to other family members as we were talking to the doctor.


My goodness, we started this journey six weeks ago. At times it feels like six minutes ago. From the beginning, the medical personnel have said this would be long and hard. I cannot stress enough we did not understand "long". We sure thought a couple of weeks. We are understanding what they meant more and more. The blessing in all of this is that Neil has the time to recover because of all the miracles and the medical expertise which sustained them.


We have been able to adjust some work assignments and others have filled in for us. Our employers have been more than patient and we cannot thank them enough. We so appreciate Sanbuck Insurance, Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood, Inc., First Financial, Elba General Hospital, Troy University and the Alabama State Department of Human Resources!!!


Please love and support the Andress family.