Another Day, Another Surgery....

Another day, another surgery… or so it goes in the life of my Mom! This is what happened...After the fun and drama we had with the 11 lb tumor on her Ovary (which, after getting lab results back, we found out was actually Stage 1 Cancer), her OB/GYN referred her to an OB/GYN Oncologist in Seattle to have the other Ovary removed, and discuss any further plans for action.
So off we went to Seattle for some more nipping & tucking! Unfortunately for mom, it wasn’t the good kind. On Friday Sept 12th, we left Tri-Cities at 2am and made it to the hospital for her check in time of 5:30am (yeah… that was fun.). In true “only her luck” fashion… the surgery that was only supposed to be “minor” and “less invasive” turned out to be more involved than originally thought. Apparently she was under the impression that they were only taking the left over Ovary - but this was not exactly the case! They wound up taking out the Ovary, the tubes, her appendix, Omentum, and a bunch of lymph nodes. Yeah. Crazy, right? The surgery went well, and surgeon / Oncologist said that everything looked very good (no visible signs of any more cancer in there, but we’re still waiting to get the pathology results). Of course, that was a huge sigh of relief… until…. I found out about her adventures in the Recovery Room.According to the Dr, she woke up out of surgery very violently.. Thrashing around, etc (which, for her is VERY abnormal. She usually wakes up from anesthesia very gently…). They figured it must be due to some pain she was experiencing, and gave her more pain medicine trying to get it under control. Little did they know... The type of medicine they were giving her doesn’t work on her!! You might as well have handed her a piece of candy. So no wonder she was freaking out! She was laying there in horrible pain without any way to communicate.After giving her tons of the medicine and finally figuring out it wasn't working, they gave her a different med that actually worked, and it got the pain under control. Only problem is… The combination of the 2 Meds basically caused her to Overdose. The two medications depressed her respiratory system and, in effect, caused her to stop breathing. So then they had to give her some kind of medicine that "wipes the slate clean" and takes all of the medicine out of your system. That got her stablized, but as a result of not having any medication in her, she was back to square one with the pain level!! Ugh!!!! So anyway.. Because of that roller coaster, they had her in ICU for 24 hours before I could take her home.
Mom's home now. In alot of pain of course, but doing MUCH better than when she was in that damn hospital. I couldn't wait to get her out of there!!! Thank you for sending your love and for keeping her in your thoughts. That means so much to both of us ~ Thanks for loving & caring about my Mama!

Sorry… no gross pictures this time. Just a pic of mom resting comfortably in ICU with the lovely cot that I got to sleep on. (I’m sorry… calling it a cot is probably too generous. It was more like springs & a metal bar covered with cloth!). Trust me. The picture is very deceiving. It might look comfy, but that is because of all the blankets and pillows I had brought with me!! My back is STILL paying for sleeping on that thing. Not that I’m complaining… I’m just happy my Mama is OK!!! Love you, Mom!