Back to normal

I brought my mom home from the hospital on Monday, as we had anticipated. She told me she was SOOOOOOO happy to a) sleep in her own bed, b) to have some peace and quiet finally, and c) to put on a bra for the first time in almost a week.

Funny, the things you miss when you’re laid up for a while.

The doctor said her incision was healing nicely, and he was able to remove all twenty staples before she left. I’m glad he did that – how would Mom ever get through a metal detector with staples in her neck? Not that there’s a metal detector to get into her building or anything, and not that the staples couldn’t have been removed a day or so later by her own physician, but it just kind of creeps me out to think of staples in my mom’s neck. Don’t they use that plastic thread that disintegrates on its own any more?

Anyway, she’s home and she’s doing well. She’s been making and receiving many phones calls (we have a big family), and her favourite sister (my aunt who came in from Edmonton on the weekend) is still staying with her. My aunt is anxious to ensure that Mom is comfortable and not doing too much and is resting as much as she needs to. I suspect that the two of them are pretty much constantly laughing their asses off, too. It’s what they do when they get together.

They are also planning to hit the casino tomorrow morning.

Yep, things are returning to normal. My mom is recovering from her surgery quite well, I think!

On hold

My mom is still in the hospital. We had been hoping that she could come home today, but apparently her incision continues to bleed a bit. The doctor (and rightly so!) won’t allow her to go home until that stops.

I’m no medical professional or anything, but I’m thinking that maybe they should take her off the bloodthinning medication. That stuff may have something to do with the fact that the bleeding hasn’t completely stopped yet. But hey, what do I know?

She is recovering well, blood seepage aside. In fact, she is quite pissed off that she’s still in the hospital. She can’t wait to get home, she said last night, because she’s got things to do! She’s only partly ready for Christmas! So that’s an excellent sign that she is well on her way to feeling good again.

My aunt, one of my mom’s sisters, is flying in from Edmonton tomorrow, and the plan was that she would stay with Mom for about a week, just in case Mom needed somebody there 24/7. My aunt will now have to be by herself at Mom’s condo for the weekend, but at least she’ll still be there when Mom is finally discharged from the hospital. Then after she goes back home to cold, snowy Edmonton (although she said that she just may not GO back home, if their weather continues to be so awful!), my brother and sister-in-law will arrive from the BC interior. They were coming down for Christmas anyway, so they’ve decided to stay a little longer, again, just in case Mom needs somebody there 24/7.

So we’re all set up for her, but we seem to be on hold at the moment. All we need is for that damn bleeding to stop and then the doctor will let Mom come home. Then we can have our Christmas …

… because my sparkly festive Christmas nails are waiting!

Operation

Today is the day for my mom’s operation to clean out that carotid artery of hers that is partially clogged and caused her mini-stroke last month.

And of course, it snowed yesterday and last night, so our early morning drive to the hospital was – um – a little more – uh – “entertaining” than anticipated. Not that we personally had any problems due to the weather or anything, but traffic was moving extremely slowly everywhere, so even though we left home even earlier than we would normally have done, it still took us about forty minutes longer to get to our destination. But we made it well before her appointed registration time.

Mom’s surgery was scheduled for 10:45 am, but 10:45 came and went and she stayed in the pre-op holding area. They finally came to take her upstairs about 12:15, so the whole schedule was then off by an hour and a half … which is actually going to work out well for DD and I. You see, I stayed with Mom the whole time till she was whisked off upstairs to the operating theatre, and then I went home. (Well, first I met PG for lunch. This waiting stuff just makes me ravenous!) So now I have an extra hour and a half till I can call the hospital to see if she’s out of the post-op recovery unit and into her room yet. And all that will now happen this evening, about 7 pm, so DD and I will miss the evening rush and will be able to get to back to see Mom without dealing with those traffic snarls. The weather is warming up as well, so even though it’s till snowing a bit, it’s not sticking very much, so there probably won’t be the same slippery conditions as there were this morning at stupid o’clock.

And now I even have time to go get my nails done this afternoon!

I know my mom will really appreciate seeing the sparkly Christmas nails that I plan to get.

Wouldn’t that totally cheer up anybody who’s just had surgery???