Medical Status of Marie Houghtaling

Well, Marie/Mom/Grandma Houghtaling has (finally!!) returned home from Rex Hospital. What a relief, after all this time! We are so thankful to all of you who offered your love, support, prayers, and fasting, on her behalf. I have had enough of hospitals these past 3 1/2 months, so that I hope I never see the inside of another one again, either as a patient or as a visitor! They took excellent care of Marie following her 3 recent surgeries. But still, after awhile, hospitals truly get very old!

Marie's recovery, thus far, is coming along pretty well, but it's not yet complete. All the physical scars are doing very well. They took out the latest set of surgical staples (used instead of stitches) yesterday (Tuesday), and today they removed the drain-tube that was draining some really icky ozzy liquid from her abdomen! And she is weak, and still has substantial pain in the lower part of her abdomen, below the latest scar. (The surgeon told us this is "to be expected", because of what he did down there to fix her up.)

So now it's trying to revive her appetite, gradually do more and more physically so that she can get back her stamina and strength. The doctor told her she can eat just about anything that sounds good to her, but we'll probably stick with stuff such as potato soup for a few days more, since it has only been 2 days since she has had ANYthing via mouth.

So now the hospital stuff is over --- for a while, anyhow! This will be my last report (ever, I hope!!) on Marie's condition!

During the worse of her illness, because we were spending so much time at the hospital with her, I had suggested to many of you that it would be helpful if you wouldn't phone to inquire as to her status/condition, but contact me via email. That had the additional advantages of me being able to print out your emails for Marie to read in the hospital, plus I was able to respond quickly in most case.

But now, all that is over forever (we hope!) Therefore, please feel free to contact us any way you wish, because we are trying very hard to get back to "normal", whatever that is!

We again express our sincere appreciation to all of you for your sustaining support during a very difficult time in our recent lives. We are so grateful!

Love,
Bill and Marie Houghtaling

Latest on Grandma

Status Report on Marie Houghtaling::
Yesterday, September 2nd, 2008, Marie had elective surgery to reverse the colostomy that she received in her emergency surgery on May 27th. We had not been expecting her surgeon to do this until 5 or 6 months after the first surgery, which would have meant in October or November. But although Marie’s recover from that first surgery (as well as her hip-replacement surgery on May 20th) seemed (to me) to go slowly enough that I was concerned about it, she “snapped out of it” in the last 2 or 3 weeks or so, and so the surgeon decided to go ahead with the reversal operation yesterday. (Another possible reason was that she was continuing to lose weight slowly, although her appetite had returned. So as long as she had this colostomy, which bypassed part of the intestines, it could mean that the food wasn’t in her body long enough to provide her with much nutrition. This is my own idea, the surgeon did not express that concept to me!)
Anyhow, Marie has done extremely well thus far after this third surgery in 3 1/2 months. She said she didn’t sleep all that well last night – the first night after surgery – but then, she doesn’t sleep all that well at home, either, so I wasn’t particularly concerned about that.
She got up this morning (only 1st day after the surgery) and used a walker to walk to a chair in her hospital room, where she sat for several hours. Then again using the walker to go back to bed. They’ll repeat that process again tomorrow. She is managing her pain extremely well. They gave her one of those medical thingys – you have pain, you push a button and get a very small shot of pain medication injected into her bloodstream. She is allowed to push it every 5 minutes or more, and doesn’t use it all that much.
She still has a tube in her nose, which continues to evacuate her stomach. They are listening (multiple times each day) to her abdomen with a stethoscope, waiting to hear the sounds of the bowels starting to function again, but it could be another 2 or 3 days. Until then, the nose tube stays in.
The surgeon had hoped that he would be able to reverse the colostomy through the stoma (hole in her abdomen), but he had warned us ahead of time that whether or not he could use that approach would depend on what he found when he peeked inside her. I guess whatever he say wasn’t as good as it could have been, because he ended up giving her another abdominal incision, so he could go in and fix her up.
Because he had to make a new incision, instead of just going in through the existing hole (the stoma), Marie’s recovery will be slower than it would otherwise have been. Originally, the surgeon told us she would be in the hospital 3 to 5 days. But when he came to the surgical waiting room to “report” to me yesterday after her 4-hour surgery, he told me that because he DID have to make the additional incision, we should plan on 5 days to a week in the hospital before she can return home.
Her spirits are up, she is naturally weak but enthusiastic about what lies ahead of her. This morning, family-friend Tracy Whitt was there visiting her, and so I took this photo of them

Grandma update 8

This is my final report on Marie's condition, because she returned from Rex Rehab 2 days ago. She is home now!
She is still quite weak, but is gradually strengthening her muscles with activity and some exercises. When she first returned home, she was not able to get out of a chair, or stand up, without a lot of help getting on her feet. But already, she is able to do this by herself, as her muscles respond to increased activity.
Starting today (Saturday), some home-care people from Rehab will come to the house every couple of days, to help Marie learn how to do things "with less struggle". They will also teach her the additional exercises that she should be doing regularly now, to strengthen and tone the muscles that basically weren't used during the month-long hospital stay for her two surgeries.
Now the only thing we need is time, for Marie to get back to her normal physical condition. She is in good spirits, even though at times there is still some pain that needs pain medication to rectify. But that will gradually decrease with time.
Once again, we are so grateful to so many people, for your good thoughts and prayers, offers of assistance, inquiries, cards, emails, and so on. Thank you, thank you! We are doing fine, especially now that Marie is home.
Because she is very stable now, this will be my last status report. Again, thank you for everything.

Grandma update 7

Sunday evening, June 15, 2008.
This past Wednesday (June 11th), Marie was transferred from Rex Hospital to the Rex Rehabilitation unit (which is on the grounds of Rex Hospital.) The purpose of her being there is to help her physically, with exercises, weight-lifts, etc., so that she will be physically fit to return home.
She has three different Rehab sessions every day – two in the morning, one in the afternoon. Her Rehab teachers lead her through the exercises, help her walk down the halls (with her walker), practice such things as going up and down steps, using a cane, and be better able to transfer from the bed to the walker or wheel-chair, and vice-versa. The more she recovers her physical strength, the sooner she will be able to return home.
Our best guess as I write this is that Marie will likely be released from Rehab to come home on Thursday, June 20th. Interestingly, that is exactly one month to the date from the day of her left hip replacement surgery, which started Marie’s recent physical problems.
Thanks to all of you who have been so supportive in so many ways. Thanks to those who have contacted Marie or sent her cards or emails to billhoho1@aol.com. For the present, emails are still the best way to contact her. If you will send emails, I will print them at home and read them to her the very next time I go to the Rehab facility. I will try to respond to phone-calls, but I still have a very difficult time hearing messages that have been recorded on our voice-recorder. I expect that, by the time she returns home, she will be delighted to receive your telephone calls at our home number, which is 919-676-1756.

Grandma update 6

Sunday afternoon, June 8, 2008.
Today was a red-letter day for Marie in several respects. I don’t have a personal Journal (that’s one of my many short-comings!), but if I HAD one, I would write in today’s entry that “today was the day that Marie turned the corner.” Her attitude is brighter and more cheerful and conversational and “perky” than it has been ever since all of this began.
Everything seemed to fall into place today. The food at Rex is really excellent, but sometimes we take her something special. So, for Marie’s lunch today, Karen brought her a piece of Kentucky Fried Chicken (original recipe!), plus a “crunchy Taco Supreme” to choose from. She ate (with obvious enjoyment) all of the taco, complete with tomatoes, lettuce, hamburger meat, and sour cream!) That was the first real sign of actual hunger that I have noticed for nearly 3 weeks since this all started.
They have now removed all of Marie’s abdominal drains (tubes, coming from the surgery, that were put in to help drain fluids). She has all of the tubes sticking in her blood-supply removed, except for one in the back of the hand. Her catheter has been removed, and, um, er, how shall I say this? Natural excretion of liquids has occurred today – multiple times!
Tomorrow (Monday), she will probably sign out of the hospital and sign into the Rex Rehab Services, which is on the Rex Hospital property, but is separately administered, I understand. She will live there for an indeterminate amount of time (most likely a minimum of 1 week, maximum of 2 weeks, but everything is “depending”.) They will help her get some strength back, and teach her how to get out of bed and return to bed without assistance, and so on. (I’ll be around to help her do these things, obviously – it’s just that one aim of the Rehab program is to help the patient to become as self-sufficient as possible, as quickly as possible.) They’ll also see that she moves around a lot more than at the hospital, and do various exercises with her that will help her regain her strength, and prepare to return home.
Our children, who gathered when Marie’s problems began, have mostly returned home. As I write this Sunday afternoon, only Karen and Linda remain here, the others having returned to their respective families. Karen will fly home to Dallas tomorrow (Monday). I’m not sure when Linda will go home, but they have seen me over the crisis, and when Marie has left the hospital and entered Rehab, Marie won’t need the family hovering and watching over her every night (thank you so much, Steve, Mike, Glen, Linda, Kathy and Karen!) So I imagine Linda will return home in the next 2 or 3 days. Rex Hospital put a cot in Marie’s various rooms in that hospital, and one of our girls has spent the entire night each night with Marie to help ensure that she had family care and help if she needed it.
A number of you have inquired when Marie will be able to receive visitors. I assume this will happen while she is at Rehab, but I have not received any specific information about that yet. In the hospital, we felt she needed to rest more than she needed to talk with visitors. In Rehab, things will probably be a lot different. We will let y’all know.
This will probably be my penultimate (love that word! As you know, it means “next-to-last”) report on Marie’s condition. The final report, if all goes well, will be when I report to you that Marie has returned home from Rehab, whenever that happens!
Thanks to all of you whose love and service and prayers have been so wonderful to us during this most difficult time. We are so grateful to you for your phone-calls, your emails, your caring, for your many offers to help. Thank you, thank you!

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

Grandma update 4

As of Sunday night, this is Marie's status. Today for the first time, she was given something to drink besides small amounts of ice-chips and water. She chose cranberry juice. She was allowed to drink 1 ounce (this is about the size of a Sacrament paper cup) of juice each hour, sipping it through the hour. Not much, but it is a start.

Marie still has a great deal of abdominal pain, which (just my opinion) may be keeping her from faster recuperation, because when she is supposed to move this or that, or to stand up and walk about the room, etc., she hesitates because it seems to hurt her a great deal. She is still taking pain medication for this, but it doesn't always seem to be very effective.

Her nights are also a bit rough. One of our daughters has been staying with her in the hospital for the last 3 nights, to help out when Marie asks for something, etc. They don't HAVE to be there, but they WANT to be.

I understand that tomorrow (Monday) they will try giving her some clear bouillon soup to drink, and see how it goes. Basically, they are trying to "kick-start" her stomach and intestines so they will resume the work that was basically stopped by the infection and subsequent surgery.

The doctor said that she might be able to go home in another week or so, "depending". She does breathing exercises once an hour, breathing into a plastic device that gives her a challenge to try to take fuller breaths, and get the lungs working well. This is necessary to reduce the possibility of pneumonia.

I guess I'm a little impatient. Things basically seem to be going along okay -- we do believe that she is coming along slowly. It's just that I personally would like to see more rapid and more complete progress. Right now, the abdominal pain seems to inhibit much of Marie would be doing "if it didn't hurt so much".

Marie was moved (Friday, I believe it was) to a post-surgical hospital room. This is sort-of halfway between the I.C.U. and a regular hospital room. That is, she gets more care and attention from more people than she would get in a regular hospital ward, but not nearly as much as she had in ICU. For the time being, visitors are basically just family, the bishop and the Relief Society president.

She has a phone in her room, but she gets so tired so easily that I am not passing out the number just yet. Maybe in a few days, when she starts to feel better, and begins to walk about a bit in the hospital. No offense, but she dozes a lot during the day and that is probably excellent for her. I think she needs her rest, and would hate for her sleep to be interrupted too much.

Evidently this will be a long recovery and rehabilitation for Marie. As I reported previously, Marie has a colostomy, the purpose of which is to give the part of her colon that had the bowel perforation last Tuesday, a chance to rest and to heal. (My gosh, has it only been 5 days so far? In many ways it seems to have been going on for weeks!) Then, in 6 to 8 months if all goes well, they will do "elective surgery" to remove the colostomy and put back her colon the way it normally is. Of course, that means another surgery, and another recovery.

It seems like a long road, but so far so good, as they say. If I seem a little depressed, I'm probably not really! I'm a little tired tonight, been up and down emotionally so often these last 5 days, loss of sleep, our six children coming into town, etc., that some days I don't know which way is up.

I would prefer communications to be via email, because I can write-up a detailed explanation of her current situation, as I am doing in this email, and then copy it to interested parties. Because of my extreme deafness, even with hearing aids I am basically unable to decipher phone-calls that are left on our answering machine. So if you leave me phone messages, you probably won't get an answer until I can get somebody to listen to the message with me and tell me what it says. Sorry about that, but profound deafness is no fun for ME, either!

Tracy Whitt has graciously agreed to handle local inquiries (that is, in Raleigh and area) about Marie's condition. We are grateful to her for this. Her phone number is 919-801-3766 (her cell phone). When I have any additional news -- either good or bad -- I will send out another email to everybody.

We are so thankful and appreciative for your interest and concern. Please forgive me for this rather formal way of explaining Marie's status! Thanks,
Bill Houghtaling

Grandma Update 3

Thank you so much for your email. This “report” on her is from our visits last night. We will have breakfast soon, and then we’ll head for the hospital.

Marie's condition is about the same, and is good is nearly every respect, really. She is awake and alert. She has responded well to the abdominal surgery and the medications. Her pain is way down, her white blood-cell count has dropped from the peak of over 18,000 down to a practically normal state (I forgot the most-recent blood-count, but something like 3,500 or 4,000, I THINK -- anyhow, whatever it is, the doctor was very pleased.) Her fever is also down from a high Tuesday afternoon of 102.8 degrees, to 98.4 yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, which is all just great.

We feel the doctors are doing everything they can do right now, and that her body is responding really well. Her spirits remain high, and she is "normal" so far as the eye can see (for a patient who has had recent serious surgery, of course.) She enjoys company, chats with us when we visit her (2 at a time are the rules, but they relaxed them because they know so many of our family flew in from out-of-town), and if you didn't know the dangers associated with her condition and with the recent surgery, you wouldn't be at all concerned for her future.

The surgery went well and the sources of her abdominal infection have been located and corrected (we all believe and hope). Because her intestines have shut-down temporarily, she has a colostomy now, and is cheerful about that, offering to show it to anybody who is interested! There is much to be thankful for, and we ARE-- appreciating all the prayers from family and friends. Thank you!

She is still not allowed to drink any water, so they periodically swab out her mouth and lips with some sort of chemical moistener. She has a tube in her nose that gently sucks-out anything in her stomach, so I can't for the life of me understand why she couldn't have a little water to drink to wet her mouth. (It would get sucked-out immediately.) I must ask the doctor about that!

Marie is hooked up to monitors in the ICU, which show all pertinent info, such as her temperature, heartbeat rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, oxygen-saturation level, and the flow of the various liquids she has dripping into her veins (including quite a bit of blood plasma, which I guess is preferable in her situation to whole blood). The monitor that shows all these figures fascinate everybody who visits her, and we all spend some time starting at the numbers on the screen, as they change, along with beeps (from heart monitor) and the other sounds that device issues!

But the surgeon warned/reminded us that the possibility for additional future infection, while it has abated, is still lurking there. And so she remains in the ICU ward where she is monitored and under a nurse's care 24 hours a day. (The nurse who cares for her is assigned only two patients -- Marie and one other -- and they are all just wonderful. So she is in the best possible care as far as we can see and understand.)

Really, to summarize, Marie's status now is everything that we had hoped/prayed for, and we know that things could surely be much, much worse. Signs are good, as I said -- as good as we could expect at this point. So naturally we are, with the surgeon, "cautiously optimistic", hoping for the best, but knowing that, as the doctor told us that first night, "she is still not out of the woods yet."

We thank you for your email, phone-calls, and your interest and faith and prayers in Marie's recovery. Our six children are assembling, because of the seriousness of her condition. Kathy and Glen arrived on planes last night, so now everybody is here except Linda, who is "supervising" the arrival of her latest granddaughter this morning in Idaho! She will arrive tomorrow, I think, probably just as soon as that new baby is held and admired sufficiently!

Again, thank you all for your support. These are tough and serious times for our family. We know Marie is in God's hands now, because the doctors have done and are doing all they possibly can do now. Please do not send flowers for Marie -- they have restrictions in ICU, so she wouldn't be able to enjoy them if you DID send them! (I will let you know when she is well enough to go to a regular hospital room, but that won't be for a week or 10 days, we are told to expect.)

Also, again, thank you for your great offers, but please do not send us any food! I guess that our eating habits are suffering a little, because we are adapting our schedules to spending as much time as we can with Marie, and we grab something to eat in small groups here and there, usually in the hospital cafeteria.

Marie says to "thank everybody", and I do. And I express my own appreciation for your care and concern, also. Thank you.

Love to all,
Bill Houghtaling

Grandma Update 2

This is the latest we have as of about 9:30 am Wednesday morning, concerning Marie's medical status. She had great abdominal pain yesterday (Tuesday), and so we took her to Rex Emergency, where they examined and treated her. We were all very distressed, because Marie had a complete left hip replacement surgery Tuesday (8 days ago), and she was recovering from that splendidly. (So, at first, we assumed that the abdominal pain might be related to that hip replacement surgery, but that proved NOT to be the case.)

They took x-Rays of Marie's abdomen and were not able to see any problem. So then they took a CAT Scan, which showed that there was air in the abdomen, typically a sign that there has been a bowel perforation, which causes release of air (and feces and other bad stuff) into the abdominal cavity.

A Doctor Ng performed abdominal surgery on Marie about midnight, early this morning. They found that she had, indeed, perforated a bowel. They told me the name of the specific colon, but I forget which one it is, but it's the big intestine, perhaps 2 feet from the anus. (Incidentally, this perforation was apparently caused by a terrible case of constipation, brought on by side effects from a pain-killer medication that was prescribed for Marie following her total hip replacement surgery Tuesday of last week.)

Because of the bowel perforation, "toxic waste" from the intestine got out into the abdomen, which is always an extremely dangerous situation. The surgeon says they found the perforated area, and have repaired it. Also, he feels that they have removed this bad stuff during the surgery, but of course, sepsis is always possible, so Marie is not out of the woods yet.

The surgeon said he hated to give probabilities, but when we pressed him, he said that for surgery of this type when everything seems to go okay, the fatality rate is about 10%. If things go wrong, that number goes up as high as 80%, he said. So far, things seem to have gone right, so we hope for Marie's eventual complete recovery. But that is not a "given" -- she is not out of the woods yet, the surgeon stressed. He said he is "cautiously optimistic". But there can be no guarantees.

This morning about 6am we saw Marie in ICU, where she was taken after surgery, and where she will remain for a few days. She is awake, although heavily sedated. But she talked with my son (Steve) and me, and even made a little joke. She has a colostomy because of the problems with the bowel. Supposedly, if she recovers, in another 6 months or so, they will reverse the colostomy, and "re-plug" her intestines back the way they were.

Following major surgery on the intestines, they shut down and basically quit working. This condition can last for a week or more, so they are feeding her intravenously, because anything that went to her stomach just isn't going anywhere right now.

Marie's spirits have always been high, and they remain that way now, in spite of her tenuous condition. We hope for the best, but understand that unexpected problems for this type of surgery can and do occur, and we just don't know the eventual result, although we can certainly hope and pray for the best.

Son Steve was already here when Marie's problem came up yesterday. Our other children Mike and Karen arrive at various times today (Wednesday). Glen and Kathy come in tomorrow, I believe. Linda is planning to arrive after her daughter's baby is born via C-Section tomorrow (Thursday morning). We will be in a state of modified chaos by then, I think!

We have already received numerous phone-calls and emails, inquiring as to what you can do for us, and the answer right now is basically nothing. Except we would really appreciate your prayers for Marie's recovery.

We are grateful to everyone who phones us or sends us emails, to inquire about Marie's condition, to offer services such as meals, and so on. I apologize, but I simply do not have enough time right now to personally answer emails or phone-calls.

We have asked Tracy Whitt to act as a sort-of local contact for news of Marie's condition, because your phone-calls to the house or to our cell-phones may not be answered in any sort of a prompt way (our apologies for that.) Tracy's number is 919-801-3766. We will keep Tracy updated as changes in Marie's status may occur, and she has promised to keep you informed as things may change. (Thank you so much, Tracy).

We ask that no food items be given to us. There is no room in the fridge for anything, and in fact it is likely that some stuff already there will spoil. Also, our schedule is erratic, and is apt to remain so for some time. We will be grabbing snacks on the run for the most part, I imagine.

And now it is time to go to the airport to pick up daughter Karen, who arrives this morning at 11:15am. So I must close this email now, so I can get it on its way, even though I did have some other stuff I wanted to say.

Thank you again for your prayers,
Bill Houghtaling

Grandma Update one

Hi, everybody! I wanted y'all to know how Marie was doing. As you know, she had a total hip replacement on her left hip last Tuesday. They started on her about 11:45am, and at about 12:45pm the surgeon had completed the surgery, had cleaned himself up with a new set of scrubs, and was in a waiting-room conference room with me, explaining that everything had gone okay with Marie.

Dr. Vaughn is the surgeon, and he is known for doing excellent work, and also for being a very fast worker. He “opens up, does the job, and closes up” as well as, and faster than, nearly every other surgeon! The actual operation, if you can believe it, took only a little more than 45 minutes!

Marie was up and walking around the morning of the next day – Wednesday. She used a walker, pushing the walker ahead of her, then leaning on the walker as she caught up to the walker. But the next day (Thursday) when she went on her walks around the hospital, she was going up and down the corridors, almost at will, and some of the time she was just lifting the walker completely off the floor, and just carrying it in front of her as she walked! (I’m not sure that is the approved way for a patient to use a walker, but she said she didn’t need the support, and it was faster that way!)

She did so well that, when the surgeon came around to talk with her Friday morning (this was less than 3 full days after surgery!) he decided she could go home if she wanted to, even though she had expected to stay in the hospital for 4 days “if everything goes okay”.

So she came home Friday (it was noon before the paperwork and stuff was completed), and she has been continuing to do very well. She even talked some of trying to go to Sacrament Meeting yesterday (Sunday) morning, but my son, Stephen, who is visiting with us from Oregon, and I talked her out of that, feeling she really wasn’t quite ready yet. But she IS doing extremely well.

Her spirits through this whole process have been so high, she was so enthusiastic and everything, that it is easy to forget that the healing process has not yet been completed! She is NOT pain-free, for example. She takes pain medication every 4 hours, and if she forgets or tries deliberately to go without it, or to lengthen the time between doses, then she suffers the result when the pain returns. But this is getting better all the time, and we are so delighted and impressed with how she is doing that I wanted to share it with

Her left hip can really hurt if her leg is handled carelessly, so when we prop it up with pillows (recommended by the rehab lady who came to the house Saturday morning), we must do so very carefully. She must sleep on her back or on her right side, and moving or rolling over must be done very carefully to avoid pain. I’m getting better at helping her like that.

She can shower carefully, but no baths because (a) it’s too hard to get in and out of the tub, and (b) she is not allowed to “soak” her stitches until they have completely healed. Speaking of stitches, I think it is staples and not stitches, but what the heck! They’ll probably be removed on June 3rd, which is when she goes back to her doctor for a checkup.

Her scar is only about 4 inches long! How the surgeon was able to get in there and do his job through such a small opening is something that I simply cannot understand.

I’ll include a photo here of Marie here – it was taken the 2nd day after surgery, as she walked down the hospital corridor at Rex Hospital.

Well, that’s “it”. Marie asked me to send you sisters a report on her progress, and I can’t think of anything else to say.