A few pictures from this week...
- Babah and Dad in the waiting room during Mom's 5+ hour surgery.
- Kyndal Faith taking a tiny break from asking "Whas wrong, Mamaw!?" to come smile for a picture.
- Jace, Kyndal, and Theo running crazy circles around JoBug's living room! lol
- Beautiful flowers and a "We've got your back!" card from the Texas Mueckes! :)
- Mom walking the halls for the first time with Nurse Vanessa (one of her awesome Critical Care nurses).
- Grandad coloring in one of the color books in the care package from Debbie Wallace! :)
- (The finished picture. lol)
- My cot in Room 123 (her Critical Care room)... and the Modern Family marathon on USA!
- Mom talking to Jaceman and Kyndal Saturday morning.
- I took a happy dinner break at McAlister's with Kristin, Frankie, and Diesel Saturday night!
- Silly face pictures while Mamaw was sleeping!
- Mom walking with Dr. Jay and her Physical Therapist Sunday morning.
- Jaceman with a chicken nugget in one hand and a fry in the other - (I got to go swim for a couple hours or so on Saturday morning while Dad and Babah were up there - a fun and much-needed relaxing break!)
- Bill and Debbie Wallace hanging out with me and Dad in the waiting room during Mom's surgery! (Rick and Bill and Jill and Babah and JoBug also came that day!)
- Mom with Nurse Ashley signing the paperwork to go home yesterday!
- My new book - I'm about halfway through, and I identify with this author so much!
- Our stuff packed up and ready to go home.
- JoBug offered to "sneak" me in a glass of white wine - she wasn't kidding! lol It was more like 5 glasses, and the first time I'd had wine through a straw! lol (To be clear, I only had about 1/10th of what was in there. lol)
- Dr. Jay and Nurse Rachel taking care of Mom in Critical Care. (The photo blanket I got her for Mother's Day was a big hit, so yay for that!)
The surgery went as planned, and they updated us every 1-2 hours on their progress. Mom seemed to be doing really well that first day and night, just sleeping a lot, but not in awful pain, so I was very relieved... but her blood pressure was low, and it became more and more of a problem. It was 73/38, and I could tell the nurses were concerned. They gave her a lot of fluid and two pints of blood, and that didn't fix it like they'd hoped it would. (The top number was 59 at one point, and the bottom number dropped to 27.) At that point, she was pretty unresponsive and out of it, and her kidneys were not functioning well because of the low BP. Toward the end of the night when it was just me and Mom there, they decided to move her to Critical Care so they could monitor her and start a dopamine and sodium bicarbonate drip to increase her blood pressure. Needless to say, it was scary and felt like my fears were coming true. I googled a couple things to see how serious it was, and that was (and almost always is) a bad idea. Eventually, I got on Facebook, and it was encouraging to see the verse below in my "On This Day" -- something I'd posted in 2011, another year of hospital stays and surgeries for Mom. Obviously, she improved through the night and by 9 the next morning, her BP was stable without medication. They moved us back to Room 104 Saturday afternoon... she walked the halls that night and Sunday morning... and she was discharged from the hospital yesterday around 1:30! (Very unexpected, as they'd been telling us she would need to move to inpatient rehab for a week starting today.)
The bottom three screenshots are Rach's update for people to pray for Mom, her Father's Day post for my Dad, and JoBug's Father's Day post for Grandad! =) Just things I want to remember from this week!
The presh girlfranz have come down with a bad cough, so I took them to the vet (top left pic) and got some pills to help them. I still think they're adorable when they sleep - Bellsy Bells all worn out from her cough! I got them a new Martha Stewart pet bed, and Bellsy is a fan! When I came home to take them outside, Sam followed me to the back door as usual, but Ella had stayed back in the laundry room, not moving at all from her little throne. lol #cuteness Kelly Marie was able to house-sit and watch them for me while I was gone Wednesday through Sunday! I'm thankful for that, and I know they are, too!
Finally, here are a few pics from Mom and Dad's 35th Anniversary dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse! Me and T-man playing the games on the kids' menu, Jace helping Mom open her present from Bill & Jill, Josh and Miss K, Carterman being silly, Rach having some attitude while Kyndal shows us a pic of herself, and their complimentary dessert!! =)
Mom is doing significantly better, but the recovery process has just started, and there is a lot of fear and anxiety as she tries new things for the first time. Rach and I wondered if they discharged her too soon, as getting in the car was extremely difficult and painful for her. When Mom gets panicked, I feel completely inadequate and want to call a medical professional to help. Last night, I called the Spine Hospital with some questions and nearly called 911 twice, then when Dad got home, he calmly talked Mom through the pain and fear, and encouraged her that she will get better every day and keep building up strength. Maybe it's good that he's there now and I'm not. lol But please keep her and our family in your prayers...
I still feel pretty tense and keyed up from this past week. Everything was heightened and more intense through the last four days -- the love, beauty, joy, gratitude, and connection... and also the fear, stress, and desire to keep everything under control. I barely slept the three nights at the hospital with the nurses coming in and out to check everything, as well as just trying to make sure I heard Mom if she needed anything. There were some great moments and quotable quotes, which I'll write more about later. I talked to the doctors and nurses and took phone notes on a lot of what was said, and I was always ready to hand Mom her water, tea, jello, Carmex, toothbrush, etc. I held her hand when they were giving her more shots (they blew two veins with IVs and her hand got really swollen - disturbing to think about, but not too serious) and I tried to comfort her when she got nervous or confused, and to stay quiet and let her sleep as much as possible.
I can feel myself still wanting to be there and be able to make sure she's well taken care of and getting whatever she needs to be comfortable and taking the right medicine at the right time, so I'm trying to trust God and let all that go. She is going to have to fight through a lot of pain and discomfort, and in those situations, sometimes you need hypersensitive compassion and comfort, and sometimes you need tough love and people who will push you, and I'm sure God timed it right for what she needed when! Dad, Rach, Josh, Babah, Grandad, JoBug, Charlene, Alan, Georgia, Bill & Jill, and many others will be working together to do our best to care for her and help her make progress through this season, but there are a million things none of us can control, so that's always a little scary (at least to me). I could make sure her teeth were clean and her blankets were situated correctly and her lips were not getting chapped, but I could only pray when her blood pressure kept dropping. There is a lot that only God can do, and He is sovereign and gets to decide what happens and how it happens. I am thankful that Mom is doing well today, and I'm thankful that if God wants her to make a full and complete recovery, she will... He is the Lord, the God of all humankind, and there is, indeed, nothing too difficult for Him!!
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