Happy New Year 2009!

IR Haven now celebrates its sixth year as a blog, still going! It may be going slow (admittedly, sometimes next to never) but it is still here...and we're not planning on going away any time soon.

Christmas was eventful last year. We did have a great time as a family and everyone got something nice, presents-wise. There was just one unfortunate thing that attempted to overshadow Christmas: I got an abdominal hernia! It manifested on Christmas Eve (I had helped Angel with some redesigning of the living room, which involved some moving of furniture. Evidently, that was enough to do it.

Thanks to the holidays, I wasn't able to get in to see the doctor until the following Monday. I was diagnosed with the hernia and as I suspected, they needed to take care of it with surgery. I asked for it to be done as soon as possible, so they scheduled me for first thing Wedsnesday morning: New Years Eve.

They told me to show up at 5:30am so they could start the operation at 7:30am. Angel and I woke up at 4:00am and got to the hospital in time to be whisked through paperwork, getting gowned up, an I.V. put in and getting blood drawn. That led to a strange situation because for some reason, my potassium levels showed as significantly higher than normal (6.2), which could have led to a rescheduling of the operation. They took another blood test and it came out normal, though, so all proceeded as planned.

I didn't wake up until about 1:00pm in the recovery area, even though the operation itself didn't take more than 45 minutes. I'm guessing they gave me a lot of anesthetic... They rolled me down to my room, which turned out to be a really nice and really big. My mom told me why but it's a long story. Anyway, I spent a good chunk of the day either being asleep or watching Food Network. Out of boredom or not liking a show, I'd flip through the other channels occasionally.

I had a couple of visitors after Angel, the boys, my sister and my mom left. A good friend from church stopped by to visit in the afternoon and not too long after he left, my sister-in-law showed up, which was very sweet of her.

I also got to eat regular food the whole time I was there, which was nice.

The hours passed and thanks to the pain meds, they passed pretty quickly. Angel and the boys called my cell phone at midnight and left a very lively message for me (I was passed out from pain meds). It was a wonderful surprise to wake up to, though!

I was finally released about 2:30pm on New Years Day, which I got to spend with Angel and the boys. That made me very happy.

Despite everything I went through between Christmas Eve and New Years, I'm still very grateful. I am blessed with a wonderful wife, children, family and friends. Really and truly, I couldn't ask for more.

Have a wonderful new year, everybody!