June 29

Hi. We're back from the trip to Alabaster. It was fun, but we are all worn out. Mark made it and actually went to all of the games. He was quite the trooper. Luckily we got a great schedule. Our first game was 9pm, so the weather was nice. Saturday our games didn't start until 6pm, so we weren't out in the heat of the day and this morning we played at 9am and it was actually chilly. Our afternoon game today was getting a little warm, but we still had a lot of cloud cover and it made it nice for Mark.

We're home now and officially unpacked. Everyone was tired and took a little nap this evening. Colton got up feeling sick and then began vomiting all over the living room carpet and downstairs bathroom. It was such a joy to clean up after a long and busy weekend. He is resting now.

We are going to take Mark's catheter out tonight before he goes to bed. They officially told us to do it Monday morning, but since Dr. McKenzie is letting me do it at home to save us a trip, we thought we'd get a jump start. This way if Mark is not successful (and we're hoping and praying hard that he is) we hope to save ourselves a middle of the night trip to the ER tomorrow night. We hope that any troubles will show up in the middle of the day so we can make a trip to the doctor's office instead. (That is the plan anyway). I really have a good feeling this time that he will be okay without the catheter. It would certainly make Mark feel more like himself and give him some more freedoms to start getting more active.

Mark had to walk up one flight of stairs at the hotel to get to the breakfast area. I thought he was going to die when he looked at them. The look on his face was like he was going to have to climb Mount Everest. He is just so debilitated from all the bedrest. It is amazing what it (bedrest) will do to someone so strong and active like Mark.

Our incision still looks good, but has a long way to go. It is still gaping open in 2 spots and has to heal from the inside out. We continue to do dressing changes. I am not sure when we will be scheduling our next surgery in Pittsburgh. Hopefully it will be soon. Keep praying for strength and healing for Mark's body.

God bless!!!