luke, i am your father...

hello friends in blogging land...

this is D. i've been asked to update you all on my momma's condition after her surgery today. you all are so sweet - your comments are wonderful and just what she needs to help her through this. you guys were right up there on the list of people to contact, too - she made sure i had her login information before they took her up this morning.

so she mentioned the ice storm and the potential of staying in the big city to be closer to the hospital. however, she didn't mention that we'd have to browbeat her into making that decision. it took a day's worth of phone calls and texts to get her to decide that staying overnight in dsm was a good idea. and honestly, i don't think she was convinced; i think she was just tired of arguing with us all.

she and mark were there bright and early this morning - 5 a.m. intake paperwork and a barrage of questions took about an hour and a half; i got there a little after 6 and she was getting prepped. i could tell she was nervous; she wanted to talk more about me than her. her anesthesiologists put together quite the knock-out cocktail and the doctors whisked her off just after 7 a.m. - right on time. we were told it would be about 90 minutes in surgery, but the surgeon appeared after an hour and 15 minutes and the news was good. the procedure went as planned and things looked good. he said that he's hoping this relieves a lot of the weakness in her legs and arms.

we got to go up to see her after about an hour - and considering what she's been through, she looks beautiful. and she can talk AND HER VOICE HASN'T CHANGED! that was one of my biggest concerns, that my mother would never sound like herself again, that she'd be cursed with the voice of darth vader or lily von shtupp or something equally awful. but she sounds wonderful. she has a bandage on the front of her neck, where they went in to fix things up and she's having a lot of pain in the back of her neck, obviously where they performed the actual fusion. she kept saying that she's surprised with the amount of pain back there. it was hard to judge pain in her legs and arms because the pain in her neck was so strong, but she was moving and was acutally up walking to the bathroom before i left. but when she's up she has to wear a neck brace to keep her from straining her neck too much - it makes her look like she's about 5'11" with that thing on - her posture is so good. :)

they're keeping her doped up on some pretty strong pain meds and she snoozed up until lunch time and pretty much all afternoon, from what i've heard. she did eat some lunch (as much as anyone can eat that crap - you should have seen it) and she's keeping liquids down. there didn't seem to be much of a reaction to the anesthesia and she's recovering quite nicely. i noticed my mom didn't tell you that usually she's a grade-a-pain-in-the-ass kind of patient, but today she was on her best behavior. i'll tell you though, the nurse mentioned going home just casually in conversation and she jumped out of drug-induced haze to tell him that she was could be ready in a matter of minutes if they wanted to let her go. it was kind of funny. but they are thinking she'll be ready to go home after breakfast tomorrow.

i can't thank you guys enough for the love and support you give her and i know she appreciates it too. i'm not sure if i'll post again or if she'll take over when she gets home, but someone will keep you updated.

love,
D