Ta Da!

Mom's follow-up visit went smashingly! Her x-rays showed her new, cool, hardware. He was happy with how she's doing. He let her go home without her neck brace. She cannot drive until she has had 2 PT sessions. But once she has them, she has her wings back. She seemed both thrilled and terrified of this--totally natural!

So, she'll go back in 6 weeks for another round of X-rays and follow-up visit with the good doc. Blog will be left up for a bit, but we'll take it down then. And, if you see the poll numbers you'll all be glad, like me, that she followed the rules. The two maybe votes were by her, isn't that funny?

Here are pix from the hospital stay, somewhat gross, but very telling compared to how great she's doing now...

Day 14

Mom got her staples out on Wednesday. Jamie drove her into Boston to Dr.Weller's office. She said they came out easily and that it didn't hurt much at all. No new information given about changes to her rules-to-live-by. Meaning, if you see her outside weeding, driving around, lifting anything beyond 10 lbs, stop your car, walk her back into her house and remind her how gross the surgery was. Also, ask her if she wants them to go back in and have to fix any popped screws or areas that didn't fuse properly. Thank you.

She sees Dr. Weller in early June to have an xray and see how the bones are solidifying. That will be a telling appointment. As always, please feel free to stop in at Mom's and offer to load some laundry, pull a few weeds for her (which I did yesterday), or take her to the movies. We're now at the point where she feels trapped at home. You all are the best, thank you for helping her!

I won't be updating the blog again until she sees Dr. Weller, or if she breaks the rules and does some damage.

One Week and one Day

I think it's time to shutter this blog...she's sailing right along, a routine clearly established. And, I know she must be feeling better because yesterday she had the nerve to try to reason with me about why people who've had this procedure can't drive for 4-6 weeks! ALARM bells. Start the neighborhood watch. If you see her driving around the 'hood, please call me or email right away.

How are we gonna keep her still-ish for another 3-5 weeks??? Could be trouble.

Today is a shower day so Gracie & I will head over to help wash her hair. It's all the small things that we take for granted. Seriously, when is the last time you stopped to give thanks for the ability to 1) get wet all over and 2) lift your arms above your head to wash your hair?

Please feel free to call her to check in. If she's resting, she won't answer. If you're passing by SoBo, stop in and see if you can rotate the laundry.

Thank you to all for supporting her so vigorously!

Day 5

She is settling into a routine. Eddie B peeps, you rock for doing the dinner thing...that will be a treat for them.

Her most difficult part is transitioning from flat to upright and, especially, without sufficient meds in her system. She is resting nicely. Narcotics are acting as a calming agent so that she rests. Stan is being a good nurse and acting as her go-to guy.

So, if we can continue this run, she'll get her staples out next Wednesday and be on the long road to recovery. The outside will be healed long before the insides...

Day 4, at home

So she's settled in at home as much as one can after mega-surgery.

She's quite uncomfortable today. She's been keeping up with her pain meds but seems to be having a lot of muscle spasm in one area of her back...we're trying to get the muscle spasm meds into her regularly today to see if that helps.

She phases from true pain into narcotic sleepiness, and this is how she'll be for the foreseeable future. It's very hard for her to throttle back and just 'be'. Herein will lie the problems once she actually starts feeling good without all the meds.

Please feel free to call her at home to offer words of encouragement, rides, or threats about staying still and just 'being'. :)

Pic (not for the weak)

Here is a pic of the wound, pretty awesome, huh?

She's Home!

They kicked her out around 4:15pm yesterday! Yeah, Mom!

She looked like they told her she had won and Academy Award, awestruck, incomprehensive, then scared. But, she was very brave and let them discharge her. We changed her, had her drain pulled, her IV block pulled, got paperwork, etc, etc. and made it out! One pit stop to get her meds along Route 1 then up to home!

Stan had mowed the lawn and washed the floor and the house looked great...she really likes a tidy house, so that was fantastic. We mentally went through a day to see where the great problem areas are going to be. Biggest two hurdles are the dog in the morning and going down the stairs in the morning. So, devised a system with Stan and we'll find out in a little bit if it worked and she made it down the stairs without falling or getting knocked over by the dog. I was/am a little worried about it...

I will update again later, but feel free to call her and remind her to respect the work that was done on her body and be still and no lifting over 10 lbs or raising her arms too high. Phew.