Grandma Update 5

Tuesday evening, June 3, 2008: (I am writing this Wednesday morning, but haven’t been to the hospital yet today, so this report is for last night.)

Well, as of this writing our three sons (Steve, Mike, Glen) have returned home, as they needed to go to work, and Steve has some eye surgery that is scheduled. We are grateful that all six of our children could be here to support Mom (and me!)

Marie has had some ups and downs the last few days. Yesterday (Monday) she had a few mouthfuls (all she wanted) of some creamy potato soup. She has not had any real appetite for many years, and hospital life (it’s been 2 weeks now, including her original hip-replacement surgery) hasn’t improved her appetite at all!

Marie had a heart “incident” 3 nights ago. Around midnight, her heart began racing, and when the night nurse was called, she confirmed that the chambers of the heart were out-of-sync with each other, resulting in less-effective heart-pumping action. They gave her one medication that helped to get the heart chambers working right, but that medication also had the side effect of lowering her already-low blood pressure. So they had to give her a second medication to get the blood pressure up.

As of yesterday morning, the doctor reported that the heart was now “nearly” operating normally, and also said that the number of beats-per-minute is “near normal” – about 100 beats per minute, last I checked. That number will gradually slow down over time, they say. The doctors feel Marie is making good progress, considering the fact that her body is trying to recover from two serious surgeries just one week apart – the hip replacement surgery 2 weeks ago yesterday (Tuesday), and the emergency abdominal surgery just 1 week ago yesterday.

I have tended to view things through anything BUT rose-colored glasses! When they tell me that Marie’s heart is “near normal” in any particular function, what that means to me is that it is NOT “NORMAL”! (“Near normal” is NOT “Normal”!) I’ve got to stop thinking that way and viewing life that way! She is getting better, and we can see it, although day-to-day sometimes it seems the progress is quite slow. Also, I tend to compare her slower recovery from the abdominal surgery with the far-faster recovery she showed from her hip surgery, which is unfair, I know. I just want her to stop hurting, get well, and be able to resume life, and am so impatient when that doesn’t happen right away.

I was particularly stricken when I learned of her heart problems 3 nights ago. But the doctor told me that abdominal surgery is always a little tricky to recover from, and that there can often be unpredictable side-effects (such as the heart irregularities Mom suffered 3 nights ago). He said “there must a hundred different things that could go wrong following surgery, and we generally don’t try to scare the family by listing all those things. Rather, if something DOES happen, we will treat it to overcome it.” Of course, that all makes sense, but still, I want Mom to recover NOW! (I said in emails to several of you that I remembered the old joke about the guy who prayed, “Dear Lord, Give me more patience. And I want it RIGHT NOW!” That’s me!)

So the net is that she is making slow and steady progress which at times, to me, is something less than I would like to see. Nevertheless, there is progress. Marie reminded me yesterday that the surgeon said that following abdominal surgery of this type, the patient can expect to be in the hospital anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months, “depending”. It’s only been one week since her abdominal surgery, and unlike most other patients, Marie was already recovering from ONE surgery (hip replacement) when this abdominal problem came along. So her recovery time is likely to be a little bit more than someone who “only” had the abdominal surgery to recover from.

They took out the staples from her hip-replacement incision yesterday, and that incision looks really fine; it is healing very nicely. I thought removing the staples would hurt, but Marie said that it didn’t. Marie says she wants to save them and have Karen make a necklace out of them, but I think she was kidding!

Thank you for not sending a lot of phone-calls. With my hearing disability, I have great difficulty hearing ANY amplified sound. This includes our Church meetings, the television – so I have to use the Closed Captioning – and also sound from the telephone recorder. I just can’t make out who is calling, what the message is, and what their telephone number is, which makes me pretty useless on the phone these days!

We do appreciate all of the emails inquiring about Marfe’s condition. The above is as much as I know right now. We are grateful for your love, concern, and especially for your prayers. Don’t stop now!

Love,
Bill Houghtaling