When I arrived this morning, mom was asleep. They came to give her a pre-surgery chest x-ray. Dad and Terry came next and Terry and I stayed in mom’s room with her while dad ran errands. Mom slept the whole time. Around midday, they took mom for a pre-surgery CAT Scan. She was originally scheduled for surgery at 3 p.m. but they tried to move her up to an earlier slot. Dad, Terry and I waited with mom until the surgery. She woke briefly around 2:00. She fell back to sleep and then, at 2:15, they took her down to the Operating Room. Lenny came to join us in the waiting when he finished work.
Mom’s shunt surgery went well. She was awake and looking around BEFORE the surgery on the way to the OR. The shunt and valve went in well. After the surgery, mom was grimacing and moved her feet a lot. This is a good sign. The resident spoke to me because the hospital staff told us to go to the wrong waiting room so we waited 2 hrs and 20 mins. and then I went to mom’s room and found her and 4 nurses there. One nurse told me that the surgeon had been looking for us…whatever. If all goes well and mom continues to become alert, a CAT Scan is done tomorrow morning to check out the shunt and valve. If all looks good, then the focus shifts to getting mom off the vent and trach in the hospital’s RCU (Respiratory Care Unit). Mom may leave anywhere from Thursday through Monday of next week. If mom does not progress as hoped, then she will get another CAT Scan tonight to assess her healing and progress. The surgeon stressed that, in some cases, a shunt does not always work toward making a person improve---even after a person improves after a spinal tap. We will have to wait and see.
We spent time with mom after she returned from recovery. She smiled at us. She kept her eyes open and watched us and tracked voices. She also mouthed, “I love you” to me and Lenny. And she finished a word in a line of a song we sing. I said something funny and she laughed. She moved her feet a lot too. Anthony called her and spoke to her from work on the phone. She kissed dad and lifted her head off the pillow slightly to look at something. Her nurse told us that there were no trach ties in the Operating Room so they had to put 2 stitches into mom’s neck at the stoma (near the hole in her throat) to hold the trach secure. They came to take blood from mom so that they can begin to adjust her oxygen levels to prepare to wean mom from the vent. Mom kissed us all good-bye and told us she loved us when we left this evening. Claudia came late in the evening to be with mom. Claudia told mom her tent blew over in the backyard and mom mouthed, "So did you fix it?" but otherwise was awake but mischievous and quiet.
"Stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." 1 Corinthians 15:58
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