Mom's Heart Surgery

Thursday

Mom went in for surgery prep at 7:30am. They thought she would go in at 8:30am or 9am and be finished by 1pm.

She seem happy. The nurse asked her what her favorite color was and she said, "It used to be blue but now it's orange." She mentioned my dad had just bought her an orange purse that she was happy about.

When they asked her what her full name was she said, "Bonnie Pace." The nurse looked at her strange since that's not the name on the paperwork. I reminded her of her name and that they didn't want to know her email address. She laughed.

I left and went home to get my kids to school. My brother Jeff came down to the IMC in Murray at 9:30am to wait for details in the waiting room.

It was a long day and we received a few updates. They planned on replacing 1 heart valve with a bio-mechanical device but while there decided to replace 2. From what I have gathered they were concerned about a third valve and after it started leaking the surgeon fixed that one. After they fininished her blood pressure was too low so they installed a temporary pump to help her heart beat harder and faster. They finally closed her chest around 7pm. Not everything went as planned and the surgery went far longer than expected. In the end they installed a temporary pacemaker to help as well.

Thinking that she'd be out soon, me and my brother, Greg joined my dad and Jeff in the waiting room for a few hours but I left before they finished surgery to go home for Jonah's birthday dinner.

The doctor came out and spoke to the guys and said she was out but it was going to be a longer recovery.

I came back over to the hospital about 8pm to get into the ICU with my dad and Jeff. They finally let us back to see her around 8:30pm.

I have to say I was warned but not prepared for how different she looked. It scared me. She was bloated from all the medications- her tongue was too big for her mouth. She looked like they'd pumped her up with air like a bouncy ball. Everything was ballooned and extended. Mom's skin was the whitest I had ever seen and I feared she was gone.

She did blink a bit and the nurse said she was responding to him when he asked her to squeeze his hand or wiggle her toes but I didn't see that. Her feet were in knee high soft boots and her hands were ice cold.

My dad and brother gave her a blessing. We all tried not to let her know how bad she looked if she could hear us. This scared us all so much that none of us knew what would happen next. I personally didn't not believe she's last much longer. This surgery was to extreme for her weak body and it showed how much it had taken from her.

I stayed and held her frozen hand as long as I could with out being in the way. I didn't talk much to her since it was so late but told her I would be back to see her tomorrow as would little Dougie.

I couldn't bring myself to take a picture. It was far to hard to see again.