When In Doubt, Quote from The Princess Bride

1. This is the passage I'm thinking of:

Fezzik:     How long do we have to wait, before if we know the miracle 

            works?

Inigo:      Your guess is as good as mine.

Westley:    I'll beat you two apart! I'll take you both together!

Fezzik:     I guess not very long.

Westley:    Why won't my arms move?

Fezzik:     You've been mostly dead all day.

Inigo:      We had Miracle Max make a pill to bring you back.

Westley:    Who are you? Are we enemies? Why am I on this wall? Where's 

            Buttercup?

Inigo:      Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. Buttercup 

            is marry Humperdinck in little less than half an hour, so all we 

            have to do is get in, break up the wedding, steal the princess, 

            make our escape, after I kill Count Rugen.

Westley:    That doesn't leave much time for dilly-dallying.

Fezzik:     You just wiggled your finger! That's wonderful!

Westley:    I've always been a quick healer. What are our liabilities?

Inigo:      There is but one working castle gate. And it is guarded by... 

            sixty men.

Westley:    And our assets?

Inigo:      Your brains, Fezzik's strength, my steel.

Westley:    That's it? Impossible. If I had a month to plan, maybe I could 

            come up with something, but this...

Fezzik:     You just shook your head! That doesn't make you happy?

Westley:    My brains, your strength, and his steel against sixty men, and 

            you think a little head jiggle is supposed to make me happy? 

            Hmmmm? I mean, if we only had a wheelbarrow, that would be 

            something.

Inigo:      Where did we put that wheelbarrow the albino had?

Fezzik:     With the albino, I think.

Westley:    Why didn't you list that among our assets in the first place? 

            What I wouldn't give for a holocaust cloak.

Inigo:      There we cannot help you.

Fezzik:     Would this do?

Inigo:      Where did you get that?

Fezzik:     At Miracle Max's. It fit so nice, he said I could keep it.

Westley:    All right, all right. Come on, help me up. Now I'll need a 

            sword eventually.

Inigo:      Why? You can't even lift one.

Westley:    True, but that's hardly common knowledge, is it? Thank you. 

            Now, there may be problems once we're inside.

Inigo:      I'll say. Namely, how do I find the Count? Once I do, how 

            do I find you again? Once I find you again, how do I escape?

Fezzik:     Don't pester him. He's had a hard day.

Inigo:      Right. Right. Sorry.

I could go on but then we'd all have to just sit down and watch the movie again. Suffice to say, it was a busy week. I will do my best to summarize sufficiently for those of my readers who haven't seen the daily updates on Facebook or haven't been otherwise informed.

2. So, the surgery to repair Marshall's shattered clavicle was on Wednesday. The orthopedic office we were referred to by the hospital was closed for Thanksgiving and the day after last week, so when we finally got in touch with them on Monday, they had to order blood work and an EKG to be done Tuesday morning so the surgery could be scheduled Wednesday.

3. On Monday, the pain medication that Marshall had been prescribed finally started making him sick, so he gave up on that and switched to over the counter stuff until the surgery, being sure that his doctor prescribed something else for afterwards. Keeping all these pills and dosages and times to take them straight has been my job. Now I know why I never went into nursing. (Well, the fact that I faint--really and truly faint--at the sight of blood doesn't help, either.)

4. God has been helping me to get things done ahead of time. I had all my Thanksgiving cards done and in the mail two days before the accident. I finished all of the December birthday cards for YG in mid-November. I raked leaves on Sunday after church, not knowing the pick-up would be two days ago (our township doesn't always notify our neighborhood of when to expect them; they just show up and start removing whatever leaves they find near the curb). And God has been reminding me of all the things that still need doing, emails to write, cards to send, clothes to wash.

5. Wednesday would not have been possible without the help of our parents. Marshall's mother accompanied me to the surgical center and waited with me, for 8 hours, until they released him. (We arrived at the office at 10 am, as instructed, and the surgery started about 1 pm; he was in recovery after 4.) She kept Marshall's father in the loop by phone and he informed other family members of our progress. My parents took charge of the kids, put Miranda on the bus and got both of them off, as well as preparing dinner for us. Then they put the kids to bed while I ran out to the pharmacy for Marshall's meds, which took forever to fill. Yeah, I know, everyone's fussy about narcotics now.

6. Since then I've been keeping Marshall fed and medicated, helped him readjust his apparatus and continued to put ice in his cryo shoulder pad cooler (I can't find an appropriate picture, sorry, but the thing eats 20 lbs of ice a day, keeping cool water continuously moving over his shoulder which reduces the swelling and speeds up the healing process). Like an infant, he gets me up twice in the middle of the night for a snack and more ice, but I've been able to go back to sleep afterwards. He hasn't slept much since the surgery, but hopefully that will change this weekend.

7. We still haven't found a replacement car for him, though. He usually takes several months to research and settle on a new (used) car and compressing the process into a much shorter amount of time is a little stressful on both of us. I'm sure I'll be test driving several cars for him next week (something he knows I hate doing, but we don't have other options) because we need it like yesterday.

Bonus 8. I know many of you have been praying for us every since his accident 10 days ago--thank you! Without your prayers, I don't think we could have coped. Please keep praying for a reduction in Marshall's pain, for finding a new car and for the kids, who, so far, are coping remarkable well. Poor Alex, though, can sense things are just wrong and he doesn't like it. Miranda understands a lot better what's happening, but Alex can just feel the stress in the air and it upset him. Having my parents here and my aunt and uncle (who are visiting for a couple of days) has helped tremendously.

About a month ago, Marshall and I were reflecting on our year and he said everyone gets a pass for 2011. Like 2006 (the year Alex was diagnosed with autism and Miranda was born), it's been one hard thing after another and we just want to see the end of it and start fresh. Now that's doubly true.

And here's Jen.