Last Thursday I actually wasn't in clinic. After 3 weeks of lots of pain the doctors figured out that my mom needed to have her gall bladder taken out. She was ready to do just about anything to relieve the pain. Her surgery was Tuesday and i planned on spending Tuesday and Wednesday morning with her....turns out i didn't leave till Friday afternoon and that's only because i had to be in Ogden by 3 o'clock to take my dental meds test.
The surgery was laproscopic and they made 4 small incisions in her abdomen. I was at the hospital when she was in recovery from the general anesthesia. The dr said it would take her about 30-60 minutes to come out of it. It took more like 2 hours! She was so funny...she kept swearing at my dad when she was waking up (funny, she probably was saying what she really meant, but just had and excuse to do it)! She gets really nauseous on any kind of pain medicine so she was feeling a little sick to her stomach as she was waking up. I have a history of being a sissy in hospital situations, especially to see my own mom looking like she did. I started to feel sick to my stomach so i sat down for a few minutes but it didn't help. I didn't have any food in my stomach so i think that only made it worse. I told my dad i'd be back and i ran for the bathroom. From experience i knew fainting was just around the corner! I barely made it into a bathroom which by the way seemed like a very long journey! I ran into a stall and just sat down to breathe. After about 5 minutes i felt somewhat ok and as i walked out of the bathroom i looked in the mirror only to see my face about 28 shades brighter white than it already is! I found a pop machine and got some juice to calm me down. When i walked back into the room my mom and dad were both cracking jokes at me! I don't know what my problem is but sometimes i'm susch a wuss!
Just getting my mom dressed to go home i could tell she was going to need a lot more help than i thought she would. Well, i was pretty much the one in charge because my dad conveniently had to fly out of town for work. Let's just leave it at that....i don't know that anyone who hasn't heard already would appreciate what i have to say about my dad and his priorities. Once we got home my mom laid down and slept...but only for a couple hours at a time because i had to keep waking her up to give her meds. The dr RX Dilaudid which doesn't have codeine and she did ok on it as long as she ate everytime she took it. I'm glad they found something her stomach could handle...she recovered a historectomy with only tylenol because every med they RX made her so sick and shakey. My mom is a tough cookie!
Well, that night we got a little surprise when my Grandpa Mac arrived from Idaho. He is a widower and very lonely and was also worried about my mom so he wanted to come and be with her. Hmmm, that's like the blind trying to take care of the blind...and Jami taking care of them both! Yikes! I was stressed; you almost have to watch him more than a kid! He meant well though and just wanted to be there. With mom having been sick for 3 weeks the house had become quite a disaster with 3 teenage boys living at home so i had my work cut out for me! If mom ever needed to get up i had to literally lift her to sit up. She had no use of her stomach muscles. I felt like a was doing the wheelchair transfer as she wrapped her arms around my neck and i sat her up, then moved her legs to the side of the bed. She needed someone with her to walk because she was a little tipsy! My mom thought i was funny when i gave her her toothbrush and a bowl to spit in as she sat on the toilet! I knew she couldn't stand long enough to brush but i also knew that she was eating crackers constantly to keep her stomach settled and that is a high frequency of cariogenic foods! And we all know that isn't good! ha ha ha I think she was grateful though! I made her brush 2x/day whether she felt like it or not!
The nights were long. I slept on the floor next to mom so i could hear her if she needed to get up plus we had to give her pain meds every 4 hours, then Tylenol every 2 hours after that. I got a little frustrated with grandpa on the inside. He is pretty much deaf and like any other old person, he can't sleep at night so he turned the TV on FULL BLAST to pass the night away. Try to sleep through that! IMPOSSIBLE!! Mom and i just had to laugh though! He's such a cute old grandpa! Mom has a lot of great friends that brought dinner in and checked up on her often and we made it through the week. By Thursday night she was able to sit herself up, but she was still in slow motion with everything. Its amazing how much progress she makes each day.
Sorry this is such a long post and i don't know why i told a lot of the details, but it was my whole week! I missed Brett tons! I think he really loved the fact that he got the bed all to himself for a few nights and could just sprawl out! I'm very grateful to have understanding professors that let me be with mom when she needed me....and glad that my "dad" was out of town so I (and mom) didn't have to put up with him. It was a long week and pretty exhausting, but i know it was where i needed to be! I will be in clinic Thursday to finish up the last of my requirements before the semester ends! YAY...only one more to go!
