Next day

FRIDAY

I called at 7am to see how mom's night was. Dale, her dedicated nurse, said she was more alert and complained her mouth was dry-which was her complalint before surgery. She was given 2 units of blood but lost of liter in the night. He did say she was very sick and very weak and dependent on the medication and balloon pump. If she lost her breathing tube or the pump it was be fatal. But he said she was hanging in there.

I went to visit her around 9:30am. She looked less puffy and had a shade more of color. She was much more responsive. When I say responsive -she moved her eyes more and tried to move her mouth. When I told her I had to go she lifted her hand a bit. She is in restraints so she didn't get far but that was something. She looked better than the night before but it still hurt to see her like this. Her hands were still very cold but I felt her move her fingers a few times trying to squeeze my hand.

Marci, Doug, Jeff and my dad were all there when I stopped by a little later. Marci asked if she should take a picture for the kids and mom nodded her head yes. We asked her a few questions-would she do it again -no, she shook.

Throughout the day she tried harder and harder to communicate but we couldn't quite understand. She got aggitated when someone tried to leave and kept trying to sit up. Although only semi-conscious, the nurse put her on a drip so she wouldn't be too awake and mess up her breathing tube or a line in an iv.

The surgeon stopped by and said their original plan of being in the ICU for 3-4 days was wrong, it would be much longer.

When the hospital doctor finally came with the echo-cardiogram results, she said that the left side of mom's heart wasn't working as well as the right.

We all loved seeing her. Little Dougie stayed back. I asked him what he thought about mom and he didn't respond.

"Did she scare you?"

He grunted, which means either way

"Do you want to see her again when she can sit up and talk?"

Yes

Jeff stayed with her most of the day. He tried to leave and she wanted to get up, maybe to stop him. He ended up sneaking out.

Marci went back later and said that mom was starting to get bed sores so the nurse put her on her side but that made breathing hard. Mom started complaing about her stomach hurting.

Later that night they switched her bed and it unsettled her. Her bed sores are getting worse. They gave her more pain killers and she was very out of it. Greg came and put some music on for her. She didn't like it. Then he put on the Tabernacle Choir and she liked it. Marci thought that was funny.

This is the best angle and picture that Marci could take of her. She's much more puffy and bruised on the other side.