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January 15, 2004
My trip for my mom's surgery, part 1
I left for LAX on Monday night about 9:15pm. We made pretty good time and the drop-off was successful. I checked in and had my luggage inspected...passed the TSA's scans. Made it up the elevator and to the security point. I was told I could either take my shoes off, as well as the normal procedures, or they would take me aside and give me a body search. Interesting options. Why would anyone choose to not take their shoes off?
My flight left on time at 11:41pm and we caught a good tail wind. The flight was about half full, which made me happy being a rather large man, and was smooth with barely any turbulance. We landed in Indianapolis 30 minutes early and I had time to grab a ham, egg and cheese bagel meal from McDonald's before catching my ride to the hotel.
We are staying at the Residence Inn by Marriott, mainly because Kristina earned a large amount of "Rewards Points" while we lived in Dayton, OH. I am also convinced that Residence Inn has the nicest staff of any hotels. When I called to confirm my room from L.A., I asked for early check-in. The inquired as to how I would be arriving. I was going to have to wait for a while for my dad to get my mom dropped off at the hospital before he came and picked me up. Scott from the hotel offered to have me picked up from a limo service. I agreed. So, that's how I got to the hotel.
I got checked-in and took a shower. Dad picked me up and we got to the hospital. Mom had already been "wired-up" and they did a quick procedure to reduce blood flow around the area of the surgery. She was in great mood...the best I've seen her in a long time. She was making jokes about them screwing off the top of her head like in Steve Martin's "The Man With Two Brains." Most of Tuesday we just hung out and talked. Betty and Becky showed up for a bit when we went to go have dinner. Not much more to share about that.
Wednesday started early. We got up about 4am had breakfast at the hotel and went to the hospital. We had a few more visitors...Pastor Terry and Sid, Verlon and Norma, Arlena, me, dad, Jason, Brandon and Lorye were all there. They took mom for her MRI around 8am and then straight to surgery.
They started her surgery around 9:15am and went for 7 hours. Rhonda and Rick showed up and hung out with most of us all day in the surgical waiting room. That was a long day.
The surgeon came out and talked to us. He said the tumor was about the size of a baseball and was a "bear" of a tumor. He guessed that it was about 20-30 years old. Wow. They got just about all of it. He said nothing was left that would ever effect her again. They also didn't have to cut into the brain at all.
Because of some stupid scheduling and not informing us of what was going on with her move to the ICU, we didn't get to see her last night (WED). We were going to go back after dinner, but they had given here medication for the pain and she was out. We didn't want to disturb her rest.
ICU visiting hours start at 10am. We were at the hotel getting ready to walk out the door, when my phone rang. There were some "changes" in mom's condition. We rushed right over.
At 2am, she started to wake up and they gave her some ice chips. She vomitted them up, but was waking up more. Around 5am, she started to swell up...mostly her upper body and head. This is a semi-normal side effect of the body reacting to brain surgery. She was having trouble breathing because of the swelling and was put on a respirator to help her breathe. 7am, they did a CT scan and everything was normal. She is "unconscious," but is having body movement that is characteristic of her...moving her foot left and right. She didn't open her eyes, but I did talk to her.
She is starting to stablize again and here blood pressure is getting better. Her EKG is normal and she is being carefully monitored.
That is about it for now...we are hanging out and trying to just be positive and prayerful. Keep the prayers coming...I'll keep the updates coming thanks to St. Vincent's internet kiosks.
Posted by Marc at January 15, 2004 12:47 PM
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Comments
Hang in there Marc. We are all rooting for you and your mom.
The Viking
Posted by: Elmira Viking at January 16, 2004 12:15 PM
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