UPDATE

I wanted to start by saying thank you for all the thoughts and prayers and those of you who sent a message (I didn't mind :)). I appreciate it more than you know. Everybody always talks about how much family and friends pull together when things like this happen and you really can't understand it until you experience it- it's so overwhelming, in such a good way.

I had an earlier draft of this post written and then so much changed in the last few hours. That's always how it goes, isn't it? He's already heading home tomorrow .They said he's been doing really well, and I've noticed changes even in the last few times we've visited. He's more lucid, complaining less of pain, and is more mobile. (Updated to add: He's staying until Tuesday or Wednesday. He said he just wasn't feeling ready yet and the doctor either picked up on that and is letting him stay and also said he wasn't looking 100% (still gets dizzy and heat flashes when sitting up) so he'll still be under their watchful eye for a day or two more! Which he seemed relieved about, so that's good.

He's still really sore, obviously- but he's been saying mostly that the pain is from the cracked rib, not the giant incision down the center of his chest.. go figure. My original plan was to get the whole first month figured out but they're making it sound like he may not need 24 hours of care for the entire month, so instead we're taking it a few weeks at a time. So far we have the first two weeks covered- either my brother, Matt or I will be there with him at night, and my mom's PCA is there during the day. We've also got 2 and a half weeks worth of meals covered. We'll reassess then, see what he needs, and ask for more help if need be. I figured that was better than having 30 meals made and him being far more functional than we guessed. Of course people will drop by with meals, too, so... at least we're accounting for some of that.

I was pretty spazzy this morning about getting everything coordinated, mostly because everybody is looking to us for direction and when I'd tried to coordinate with my brother he was taking much more of a "calm down, it'll get figured out, we have some time" approach. When we heard he was coming home tomorrow he suddenly became much more amenable to talking out our schedule and coverage for the first 2 weeks.

The only frustrating aspect has been how quickly the conversation has changed from concern and deference to our family handling things and offering to help to this wave of questioning whether we are prepared, what kind of care he'll be getting, whether we've asked XYZ questions, etc. It's almost as if some people expected us to just roll him home, plop him down, and then wing it? or that there would be NO follow up from the hospital? I don't mind the concern, but the fact that their automatic reaction seems to trend towards "we don't trust you guys to handle this".... bothers me. I'm a functioning and capable adult, thanks.

So, that's where we're at. This was really word vomity. I may not resume wedding posts until I feel like we have the home situation taken care of, and some semblance of a schedule set. So.. sorry. Stay tuned?! Ha.