Surgery Done!! Back on the Courts!

Rich was scheduled to arrive at Tampa General Hospital last Wednesday at 10:00. As I said before, neither of us had every made the trip to Davis Island until his appointment with the doctor at USF Health. For as long as we've lived here, driving in downtown Tampa has been something that we've continually avoided. But you must go through downtown Tampa and cross the Davis Island Bridge, because that's where Tampa General Hospital is located. The view of the water and of Bayshore Blvd across the way in Tampa from the 3rd floor Waiting Room was indeed quite beautiful.

Rich was called in just a few minutes after 10:00am and went through the normal pre-op workup - blood pressure, temp, drawing blood and getting hooked up to the IV. He didn't actually go in for surgery until about 2:00 pm ( Now remember - Rich has had NOTHING to EAT or DRINK since the night before and he is definately a COFFEE JUNKIE!!) So by this time he's not very happy! About 4:15, Dr. Armostrong came out to the waiting room to tell me Rich was doing GREAT! Now it was getting through the required four to six hours of bed rest, ( He FINALLY had his first cup of coffee of the day about 7:00 pm, followed by his first meal of the day at about 8:00pm) no driving or heavy lifting for 24 hours, and the LONG WAIT until Monday when the doctor said he could play pickleball again. He was out walking on Saturday and bike riding on Sunday and back on the courts early Monday morning. He played at Pimlico - and I went over to check on him about 9:30 and he was doing fine. Tuesday he played at Pimlico in the morning, came home about 11:00 to grab a quick lunch and then went to Hacienda to play until about 3:30 that afternoon. I think he probably would have gone to Churchill at 4:30 to play with the guys - but it RAINED!!!! Life is back to Pickleball Normal!!




Last night we went out for Mexican - They just recently opened the Ay! Jalisco Mexican Restaurant here in The Villages. We had been to Ay! Jalisco over in Clermont a year or so ago when we were staying at Thousand Trails Orlando and liked it - so we thought we'd give this location a try! I had the Chickeen Fahitas and Rich did the Chicken and Beef Burritos. Both were excellent. We'll probably visit this restaurant again before we leave.

We'll be heading over to Del Webb Spruce Creek to do some Referee Training in a week or so and we've got a Clinic scheduled at Hawthorn, an active adult community in Leesburg on the 15th - so we' re looking forward to that. Things are back to normal - Pickleball in the morning, 11:00am Pickleball Group Meeting and Trivia at Dunkin Donuts, Saturday morning breakfast at the SonRise Restaurant, Dining out with Friends, Watching the Tampa Rays/ Yankees fight for the Division Title, (GO RAYS!!), hoping that Kim Clisters CRUSHES Venus Williams on her way to the woman's US Open Title, and watching as the American men dwindle in the men's draw. Will it be another Federer win! Or will Nadal FINALLY win his first US OPEN?