Mom - Sunday - Day 6

Today is 6 days post-op for my Mom, and she is doing so well!!! Today we took a stroll around the IMC unit, into the waiting room, and back around. Mom needed no assistance at all. In fact, she probably outran us all. :) She's getting herself in and out of bed, walking, sitting up in bed and in a chair, cracking jokes (her favorite joke is the "black testicle joke"), and is in pretty good spirits. Even her incision looks good!

Mom said she had kind of a rough night last night. She got out of bed for a while and straightened up her room (if you know her, you're probably laughing) but she just didn't feel too good. She has bouts of nausea that take her out of commission for a while.

This morning mom went for a stroll and then sat down to have breakfast (remind me to tell you about her eating). After she had about two bites of breakfast a few nurses came into Mom's room and asked her what was going on. Cluelessly, mom said, "Not much!" According to mom's monitor, she was in a-fib which is an irregular rhythm of the heart. Her heart rate was elevated, which isn't too good for cardiac patients. She was given some medication through IV & things settled down from there. The cardiologist said the a-fib happens in about 30-40% of patients after mitral valve surgery. Mom's chest drain was also removed which she said was painful. I saw the drain after it was out and OUCH. It would've hurt me too!

After her minor, little setback this morning, doctors will probably keep Mom through Tuesday. She said she would relax and do what was best (remember my "This place is boring" quote?). I think Miss Pat is learning that her body needs to chill out and rest. If you ONLY knew how hard that is for her to do . . .

Food - you didn't remind me but I remembered - Mom isn't eating very much. That's not too good considering everyone is a tiny stick figure (but me). Mom said nothing tastes right. Food smells good, but once she eats it, it's gross to her. We were told this before her surgery, but hopefully that will go away in time. Mom is already tiny and can't really afford to lose weight.

Neat story: Two people from the housekeeping department of the hospital came by Friday and brought Mom some small gifts. How touching. My mother really reaches out to everyone. The fact that cleaning people think enough of my mom to care that much touches me knowing that she does the same for them. My Mom is amazing in so many ways.

Outside of the hospital, we ALLLLLLL go back to school tomorrow. We teachers, that is (me, Todd, my brother, etc. etc. etc). Ugh. I'm already tired! :)

A big thanks to Jinger & crew who sent mom some gorgeous flowers & plants. She LOVES them. Thanks for being a good daughter! Thanks to everyone for all the well-wishes, calls, emails, & prayers. It means the world to my family. Truly, it does.