TC's Injury/Surgery

Hi I have not given an update on here about TC's health and recent surgery. The week before Thanksgiving, TC noticed that the left side of his body was numb from the back of his shoulder down to his foot. He went to the doctor and she told him to wait a couple of weeks and that it would go away. It started to spread a bit so he went to the emergency room one day and then he was referred to a neurologist who then ordered an MRI of his brain and his neck. The neurologist's best guess of what was going on was either spinal cord damage or MS. We also were a bit nervous because it is a symptom of a brain tumor but the neurologist said it was very unlikely that it was a brain tumor since he had no other symptoms. It was a bit nerve wracking waiting for the MRI and then waiting for the results. TC had his MRI on December 17th and we found out a few days later that everything looked clear in his brain but that he did have a herniated disc in his neck that was pressing on his spinal cord which was most likely the result of his numbness. They said he would most likely need surgery and referred him to a neurosurgeon. TC met with the neurosurgeon on January 7th and they confirmed that he would most definitely need surgery. They said that the spinal cord compression was severe. The surgery was scheduled for February 4th. He then had two other MRI's-one for research and another of the rest of his back to make sure there wasn't any other problems and those all came out clean-thank goodness. So his dad and mom came out before the surgery and TC's dad and his good friend gave him a blessing before surgery. The surgery went as well as could be and TC's dad and I were there all day while his mom stayed with the kids. Then the next day she had to fly to Arizona for her brother, Brian's funeral, who passed away from pancreatic cancer. That was very sad. The neurosurgeon told Tom and I after the surgery that it looked like the herniated disc was more a result of an injury than a bone spur because the bone spurs were quite mild. I think he injured himself when he fell when we went bowling on my birthday because the numbness started right after that but TC is more skeptical of that. TC's dad stayed until the following Tuesday and his mom returned last Sunday and stayed until this past Tuesday and they were a big help and we're really glad they could be here with us. TC's recovery is going well. He's doing much better this week than last week. He has more energy and he doesn't have much pain anymore. He had pain in his neck and shoulder muscles. He took a bit over two weeks off of work and is planning on returning to work on Monday. He does still have his numbness which we were hoping would go away but this is usually only the case in 40% of the people who get this surgery. They said the numbness can improve up to a year after surgery though so we will see what happens. Anyway it's been a bit crazy and a bit rough but we're making it through. TC can't lift more than 10 pounds for a month and I'm 7 months pregnant so yeah fun but we'll get through it. We've had a lot of meals and support so it's been really helpful. Anyway here are some pictures.