Update on My Mom

Rather than send out random emails here & there, I decided to use this-here blog to post how my mom is doing. That way anyone who wants to check in can do so at their convenience & hopefully it will be more convenient/easy for me. Where to start??? It's already been a long day & a half. I appreciate all of the phone calls, emails, pages, texts and posts to check in. Unfortunately, I'm not doing too well at managing it all, so here's an update!

First of all, my Mom's surgery went very well. Rather than replace the mitral valve, the surgeon was able to repair it. That's a HUGE praise because it will hopefully eliminate the need for future replacement surgery or being on medication for the rest of her life. The surgery took less than 2 hours - about half the time that was anticipated.

The respiratory therapist extubated mom's breathing tube & NG (nasal gastric) tube late last night. After that, the nurses were able to give her more medication and remove the hand restraints. (The restraints are used to prevent patients from removing tubes, lines, etc.) She has an arterial line in her neck, multiple IVs in both arms, drains, etc. She's down to just the IVs, so until then, she looked like she was lying in the middle of a cockpit.

Last night when she first began to wake up, I went to check on her. The nurse said she was semi-alert & to talk to her. As soon as I said "Hi Mom," her eyes shot open. I told her she was okay & I saw her moving her hands (still restrained). I pulled the sheet off her hand and she was signing "I Love You" with her right hand. I smiled. :)

Today she is in a lot of pain. She's not able to talk, but she can lightly whisper and mouth words. She told me earlier that "This is a lot worse than I thought it would be." Yep, she's hurting. Mom asked if I was okay and then asked about her mom (Mary), Rick, Michael & everyone else in the world. Can't she just be the patient for once??? Worrying about and caring for others is what she does - and she does it well.

Luckily Mom is at her hospital (meaning where she works for those that don't know she's a nurse), so she and the nurses and know one another personally. Everyone is taking great care of her.

As my eyelids continue to fall and my head to nod (at 2:45pm mind you!), I'll close with an updated request and an entertaining photo. Please pray that mom's pain continues to be managed well and that she can remain fairly comfortable. Pray that her recovery process is successful as well.

PS - Please excuse any errors in this post. I'm too tired to care if anything is wrong.

Mom and me, circa 1970: