Sigh of Relief

Preparing for this day has been nothing but hard. My mind never stopped thinking about mom as she lay very still in the hospital bed. I came up to her room early this morning and nobody was around. Just mom and me. I talked with her about the surgery and read all of the blog comments/emails/texts. She listened, and cried appropriately. You are all so tender with your words and prayers. We are both thankful for that. Then the nurse came in turned down her sedation meds a bit so she could respond a little more to me. Jackie was here now so the witnessed mom waking up. Mom mouthed questions like, where am I, and what it going on. She pointed to her stomach and asked what is happening. I tried to explain everything to her the best that I could and she seemed extremely confused. She gave lots of hand gestures waving goodbye and I said to give me a squeeze if she loved me. She squeezed and off she went. They explained that it is kind of like moving a three ring circus when they move someone from the ICU. They unhooked everything from the walls, and took her into the OR. Grandparents, friends, pastors, and others all waited anxiously for the report. A couple of hours later, both surgeons came to tell us how it went. I am very happy to share the good news. Surgery went well! They accomplished everything that they wanted to and she did well through the entire thing. She does have the ileostomy bag and will most likely have this for 3-6 months. They removed 2 more feet of her colon. They said that she hardly lost any blood during surgery and overall was hemodynamically very stable. She is now back in the ICU and is resting deeply after surgery. A team was just in here doing rounds and they are continually talking about taking her off of the ventilator support and when her body will be strong enough for that. I will try and update as I hear any more about this. For now, I am sitting next to her and trying my best to keep everyone updated. I am sorry because sometimes I don't feel medically adequate at all to share these reports. For those of us who just want to know how she is, I would say...she doesn't look like herself at all, she is very swollen, bruised, and has gone through way too much. It will probably be a long time before she can walk again. She might be in a wheelchair for the wedding. (A minor detail that is just fine with me, as long as she is there!) I won't try to hide the fact that this is not a good situation, but she is fighting, and is stronger than anyone I know. She will come through all of it. That I am sure of. I will write more when I know more. For now, please pray that she gains strength so that she can breath on her own. Much love, Mieke