Update

My son's surgery went well. The surgeon was able to put the cages in front of T11 & L1, as well as rods/screws from T10 - L3 all through a single incision in his back. A big incision, but only one. It looks much like the xray at the blog top. This was all made possible because he didn't have to worry about damaging his spinal cord. Yeah, whatever.
It was a big surgery, about 5 hours and yesterday was rough. He was doing better today, though. Ate breakfast and lunch. Got out of bed, talked to people. I spent Monday night in the single most uncomfortable chair ever created, and remember I'm a hospital sleeping veteran. Not my first night in a chair. I came back to his apartment last night and tonight. I'm too old for chair sleeping. I did discover that I can lay down in 2 chairs placed seat to seat. Quite a feat. And I'm a poet.
His roommate is a 49 year old heavy guy that fell 4 feet off a ladder a week and a half ago. Smashed his leg when all 350 pounds of him landed on his right leg. Broke all 3 major bones, damaged his femoral artery, broke his patella and broke the tibia in knee joint. He's had 5 surgeries, so far. Including skin grafts to close the other wounds because it swelled too much for the skin to reach. Moral of this story? Don't trim trees with your ladder on mulch. Oh, and loose weight when your wife tells you too. Apparently she's pretty mad at him about this whole thing. Interesting people you meet in hospitals. Not.
BUT I finished a PAIR (yes, that's right, a pair. 2. ) of socks. They're in the wash right now after me wearing them all afternoon. I'm quite pleased. A few errors but whatever. I'm happy. And #2 looks better than #1. Then I created yarn barf out of my next skein and spent 3 hours attempting to untangle it. Finally left it in the visitor chair and left. AKKK!
Well, I'm going to finish my glass of wine and let the Benedril do it's thing. That's a story for another day. Unless you're an allergist looking for a challenge. Then give me a call and we'll talk.