Surgery updates!!
Mom’s surgery on Monday went VERY well!! For those of you who did not know, my mother underwent a bilateral knee replacement in both knees on Monday June 18, 2007. We were at the hospital by 9 am, and in the prep area at 9:15. The surgery was supposed to start around 11 am, but due to some backups, they were unable to start surgery until 1 pm. She was out and in recovery around 4:30ish.
When the doctor came out to talk to us, he said that she definitely wasn’t getting this done too soon. Dr. McCoy is a GREAT knee doctor! He works on those things all the time. So you know he’s seen quite a few knees. Well, he said that on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst he’s ever seen, Mom’s knees were between an 8 and a 9. We all knew that, but Mom wasn’t wanting to admit that. He said that the only thing that could hurt the replacement is if she fell or if she babied them too much. So we’re making sure she doesn’t baby them, and we’ll just have to make sure that for the next few weeks that she doesn’t try to get up without one of us around to help support her. If she follows the exercises and does her therapy like she’s supposed to, he has no reason to believe that there will be any problems.
We were assigned a room around 7:00 pm, and by the time we all made it up to the room, she was already in there and awake… Well…. Awake is a little stretch… Druggy…. I think that’d be the best word to describe it.
So yesterday, Tuesday, they removed her morphine drip, the fluids, and all of the other hook ups she had. She was only getting pain meds via mouth. She had Physical Therapy yesterday morning (they don’t let you rest too much!) with the very basic stretches and exercises, and then the harder stuff. Actually lifting her legs and getting her to the edge of the bed, which may seem minute to people with good legs, but for someone who has essentially two broken legs, it is quite difficult. So after the morning therapy, she was worn out. By the time I got there, Dad and Brian were out to go have lunch and then head home to sleep and shower, etc… During that time, she had another PT session, and this time, they were really going to test her limits. They got her to stand on her legs for 30 seconds!!!!!! I was so proud of her. I know it hurt her like hell, and she hurt like hell afterwards, but I tell you what… For having gone through what her legs have gone through over the past 24 hours, for her to be standing on them for even 5 seconds is great!!!
She was starting to feel less pain last night before I had left for the evening. This morning, dad called to give us an update around 8 am. He stated that they had already done PT this morning, and that she got a great 7-8 hours of sleep (both of them actually did), and that her pain levels were not as bad this morning as they were yesterday. Susan comes home this evening, so I’ll pick her up from the air port, and then head to the hospital.
I have to say… Presbyterian Orthopedic Hospital nurses and doctors are AMAZING people!! They definitely treat patients with the utmost care, concern, and decency. I have yet to meet a nurse or doctor that I wasn’t too pleased with. Everyone has been very accommodating and very nice. Even the housekeeper who knocked on the door said that she was going to be off Wednesday, but that she can’t wait to come in on Thursday to see Mom’s progress! I thought that was very sweet of her.
I will update everyone with the progress every other day or so. Thank you all for your prayers and calls. We all appreciate it!! Momma James is on the mend!!! :-) YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!