Mom's Emergency Surgery

  It started Thursday night. Discomfort that twisted into pain. I stayed awake until 2 AM to keep and eye on my mother, and then went to bed. She woke me thirty minutes later, and asked for an ambulance.

My mother never willingly goes to the hospital's emergency department.

We were at the hospital until the wee hours had wee'd even further. They said they would move her to observation as soon as they had a bed. I left her so I could sleep, and she woke me an hour later to say she was going into surgery.

 

I arrived soon after. I think? The last few days have been a blur.

 

The third floor surgical waiting room was nicely filled by time I got there. They had all thinned out, leaving just me and two gents, by the time her surgery was over. She would be in PACU until they found a bed in the ICU.

 

She was very fortunate. A section of bowl had expanded, and the tissue stretched so thin that it behaved like paper rather than skin. The surgeon was able to dissect it and stitch the healthy bits together. This is a "wait and see" recovery. He may need to go in and remove more bowel, which could result in a colostomy bag.

 

 

The first I saw of her was today, in the ICU. COVID protocols have relaxed; she can have one visitor a day, and I can leave the floor to pee or eat. She was still groggy. Unlike her open heart surgery, or her previous bowel surgery, she was overcoming her pain rather than caving to it. I'm so proud of her.

 

Mom's biggest challenge will be her lungs. Pneumonia isn't her friend, but it visits her after every surgery.

 

I'll do my best to post updates. I'm home now. I'll call my Aunt Honey to update her. They've been so worried. Already got Mom on her church's prayer chain.  

 

And I'm falling asleep while writing.