Cayman Brac Dive day 1

You've simply gotta love a guy named Gus.   (That's the name of Mom's neurosurgeon)

Mom had her surgery this morning, so we got to the hospital bright and early ... well, dark and early (5:30) and got her all checked in.  She got to put on the lovely gown and tin foil shower cap, get an IV and her vitals done, and then once she was pretty much squared away, I headed upstairs to work.  I told her it was somewhat like a trip to the dayspa --- you put on their robe, put your clothes and belongings in a bag that will be locked up while you're on your excursion, you start out in "the sanctuary" (snort) and they gave her nice warm blankets!

Fast forward to 11:30 AM.  I was done with ICU stuff and so I headed upstairs to see if she was back yet.  I pulled a couple strings in the morning with a friend who was the shift coordinator on the floor Mom was going to, so she got a private room with a lovely room and a wonderful nurse.

I got there just after she was wheeled in and first things first she wanted to go potty!!!  (the sign of life)  So she did that, came back to bed and they checked her vital signs again, and then left her alone for a little while.  She felt great and she was quite delighted that she can move her left foot again!  She was already able to move it from side to side (something she has not been able to do since June 23rd).

She didn't have any nausea or trouble like that.  In fact she turned up her nose at the jello and juice tray and requested I bring her up one of the wonderful rolls from downstairs and an order of roast beef.  So that was her lunch.  Then the doctor and his PA came by and they were so great - I could just hug them both!  They gave her the go-ahead to go home to my house but not all the way back to Puyallup.

The surgeon said there was a ton of scar tissue in the area that was causing her trouble and it looked like her nerves were somehow trapped in the scar tissue.  So no matter how much medicine she took for pain, it really wasn't going to make this kind of pain go away.  Aah, "nothing heals like cold blue steel!"  He got that out of there and shaved down a bit more bone somewhere in there to give those squished nerves room to breathe and send their little messages down the leg, and he finished it off with a shot of something (a steroid, perhaps) to slow down the formation of scar tissue and hopefully hopefully hopefully... she's fixed!!

She was really happy to come home today and I think we ate a little something more, got her into one of her many floral housecoats, and she wandered around a little, wiggling that foot from side to side, and then she started getting sleepy so we got her into bed (quite a production - I'm glad there aren't videos) and she took a long nap.  She woke up when she smelled the turkey cooking and she came out and gave me more instructions on how to do things (like sweet potatoes) and she's been up walking around for a couple hours or so again.  Oh yeah, and Bowdrie called her :-)  "Hi Grandma, how's your surgery going?"  

So I think between Bowdrie's phone call and the fact that she can already do something she couldn't do before she went to sleep this time, and the fact that she didn't wake up with a new problem (like she did last time) .... her spirits are quite lifted and there's hope in that head of hers once again!  Yay!!!!!!

Much to be thankful for on this end -- I hope you, dear reader, have a very happy thanksgiving too!