New front porch going up and My Dad at Thanksgiving for the first time in 35+ years

Update

I wanted to give an update on my surgery. I arrived at 6:00 am Tuesday and got registered and prepped with no problem. I want into surgery around 8:30 am and was done around 10:50. Dr Loesch told Helen everything went well. He said there was allot of movement and he was glade we decided to go through with the surgery. He said I was taking a real chance every day by not having it done. He said there was quite a bit of bleeding during the procedure because of the location of the incision. It is in a place where there is allot of muscle which hold more blood vessel's than a less dense area.after that After that they gave me pain meds and took me to a room. later that day a physical therapist came to see me and put me through some simple movements, She showed me how to do things like lay down and get up without damaging my neck. Also an occupational therapist came in and showed me how to get dressed, putt on my socks ect. I was walking the halls that day. I was pretty tired out and just needed to get some sleep. This is when things got worse. I woke up around 3Am with really bad chest pains. I woke Helen up and she got a nurse. They did an EKG and a chest xray. Finally they determined there was water in/on my lungs. They say it happens when a breathing tube is used because it causes irritation and your body channels fluid to the site, so it affected my lungs which was causing the chest pain.It took most of the night and next morning to get the pain under control. I would not wish that kind of pain on anyone. It was pretty bad. I was amazed how it came on so quickly.After that it was get my numbers stabilized. They had trouble with my oxygen level. I had to be on it for three days. I had no appetite the whole time I was there. I just checked my weight today and am down 15 lbs. I was nauseous the whole time because of having to be on anesthesia for such a long time. Didn't go to the bathroom other than urinate till I got home. Went 4 days without washing my hair or showering. They didn't want me to shower because I was wearing a heart monitor and that would screw that up. After 3 and one half long days I finally got to come home. Now I am just resting and trying to get things back to normal.Its going to be 12 weeks until a full recovery and it looks like I will be in the hard collar the whole time.Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers. You all definitely helped me through this.Still a ways to go but its going to be for the better.

Update

I wanted to post an update about my surgery. I am scheduled to have the surgery on Tuesday the 18th at St. Vincents. I am told it takes about an hour and a half to complete and after that I will be in the hospital for 1-2 days. They will go in and insert 2 screws in each of my 1st and 2nd vertebrae and attach rods crisscrossing like an X between them. Then they rough up the bone and take a piece out of my hip and attach it behind the "X" and let it grow the 2 vertebrae together. Dr. estimates it will take about 12 weeks to completely recover and I am going to lose some range of motion in my neck. Looks like I will be home for the Holidays Ha ha..