Quick morning update

Just heard from Mandy and things are going extremely well. The doctor came in and said she is doing fantastic. He is increasing her feedings through the feeding tube to help speed up the healing process. She has been up and walking and is in good spirits. The nurses have her anticipated release date as Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed!

It's been awhile....

Yes it's been awhile and I think we would all agree that this is not a bad thing. Just a quick update, on Sunday mom was having some horrible stomach pains. Since she does has a hernia we were concerned that it could be a blockage. After running all sorts of tests in the ER at McKay Dee it was determined that she had a perforated ulcer which would require surgery. Since this is never a good thing we were all uneasy.

During surgery it was determined that she had a perforation in her small intestine. Luckily the surgeon was able to make about an 8 inch incision just below her sternum. He found the problem right away and made a quick patch. It's similar to patch a bike tire, they take a piece of tissue and patch the hole. The surgery went better than any of us expected. However when you have a hole in your intestine bowel leaks out into your abdominal cavity. So she has a pretty serious infection that we need to combat at this point.

She is feeling well, extremely tired but keeping the pain under control. The patch needs time to heal so in the mean time they are feeding her with a feeding tube up one nostril, and sucking bile out of her stomach through the other nostril. Two tubes going down the back her throat is pretty painful and makes talking or swallowing hard. We are cautiously optimistic because so far everything seems to be going really well.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers. They truly are appreciated!

Painful Progress...

Well WWOM has been home for a week now and so far it's been okay. Her wound vac alarmed on Saturday night. What this means is if the bandage looses suction then an alarm goes off. WWOM worked on it for a while to see if she could get the leaking to stop. Finally she called the home health nurse who basically told her to take off her own wound vac and put on a wet to dry dressing. Keep in mind this is at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning. Luckily we have Mandy otherwise I am not sure what we would do. Mom got part of her wound vac off before calling Mandy to come help. Needless to say we were all livid at the home health care nurse and made sure her manager knew what she had done. Just make a mental note to yourself never to hurt WWOM or you will have a handful of very angry daughters coming after you.

WWOM had a follow up appointment with Dr. C this morning. Her retaining stitches are killing her, keep in mind if she is complaining it has to hurt something fierce. She was hoping he would take them out today but no such luck. He told her if he took them out she would hate him by the time she got home because everything would be falling out if you know what I mean. So she has to endure and keep the little buggers for four more weeks. She said she almost cried when he said they had to stay. It's so hard to watch her be in pain and know there is nothing that can be done. I truly admire her strength because if it was anyone else they would give up. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers that the pain can subsided and the next four weeks fly by.

Home...Sweet..Home!

Well WWOM made it home safe and sound..she sounds great! She is excited to be home and get a good nights sleep!

Where'd that apple fall...

NOT FAR..

I was trying to organize a cleaning frenzy for home evening at WWOM's house. Knowing full well if she came home and things were unorganized she would not rest.. Made a few calls and got to ALY. I asked if she wanted to come help and she said DONE. Perfect see you then.. Nope she meant DONE. She beats us all to it...


Yep ALY apple didn't fall far from that tree.. Karens daughter..

WE are all nervous about Mom coming home, We have done this way to many times this year to get her home and have things fall apart around us again. But we are excited too.

Tomorrow..Tommorrow...your only a day away!

So Dr. C came in and told mom she could go home whenever she felt comfortable going. She says she is feeling well enough and is going to go home tomorrow...I can't believe it!

One week down...

If anyone would have told us a week ago that today Mom would be doing so well, I don't think any of us would have believed it. It's been a joyful week, and never have I been more thankful for family and friends.

One week ago today as I stood beside WWOM in ICU, tears streaming down both of our faces she said "I can't go through this again"...I started to cry and told her "that she had to just for us."

She has done so much for all of us and I hated to ask her to do more, but I don't think any of us were ready to be without her yet. I know that in the past 6 months we have all grown closer as a family..those get together's seem more cherished than before. I know this holiday season, my heart will be over flowing with thanks for the woman who gave me life, the woman who taught me how to be a mom, the woman I am proud to call....my mother!