The Making of M.O.M.

Hey peeps.

Today has proven to be an amazing day. I'm telling you, God has really shown off in the last 24 hours. I mean, He acts like He's actually in control of all things or something. Geesh. ;-)

My Maw is doing fabulous. I just left visiting with her in the ICU and she was eating applesauce and threatening to charge the nurses for every vile of blood they took from her. Typical of my Maw. Excessively typical.

This morning, she walked to the end of the hall and back. Since I just told you about the whole eating thing, I'm guess you could infer that she is off the ventilator. But in case you couldn't, she's off the ventilator. Her heart is also sustaining its own rhythms and she in no longer needing the pacemaker.

She will remain in the ICU tonight, but purely as a precaution. Hopefully tomorrow, she will be moved to the step-down unit.

I probably won't blog about her status and recovery here regularly. However, if you'd like to follow her recovery or leave her a comment you can click here and go to the blog we've set up that will follow her recovery, even after she comes home.

Thanks so much for your prayers and thoughts. I know that they were heard by our marvelous Creator. I am amazed at how wonderful His blessings continue to be.

745pm Update:

We got to go back and see Maw for a few brief moments. I'll be honest, it was really hard seeing her in that condition, although I was expecting it - as much as I could.

She continues to be on the ventilator and has tubes everywhere. She is on medication to ELEVATE her very, very low blood pressure and is also on an external pacemaker. Our understanding is that without these two things she would have no blood pressure or heart rhythm.

The nursing shift is changing now and the new nurse will begin weaning her off sedation within the hour. With that, they will also begin trying to wean her off the ventilator. However, as the doctor said previously, her accelerated lung disease (due to many, many years of smoking) is a big factor in how well she will respond to the decreased level of the vent.

Visiting hours end at 9pm EST and at that time we will be asked to leave the ICU and we cannot return until 9am tomorrow morning. We can, however, call at any time for an update.

Unless there is significant improvement or a significant decrease in her condition, I won't update again until tomorrow.

Thank you all so much for your prayers. Right now we are just praying for her to be strong enough to be weaned from sedation so that her body can begin to regulate itself. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers so very much.

5:00pm Update:

Surgery began about 5 minutes before 8:00am. Maw came through surgery well. The surgeon met with us about 1.5 hours ago and said that they bypassed 4 arteries and replaced her aortic root and valve. He commented that she had more lung disease than we originally thought (due to 60+ years of smoking cigarettes). Additionally, that getting her lungs and airways to dialate properly so that she can get adequate oxygen is going to be important.

We are waiting outside of the ICU now to go back and see her for the 1st time since surgery. I'll try to update again later tonight.

We've got a long 48 hours ahead. Thanks again for the prayers.

Original Post:

Today is surgery day for my Maw. If you're visiting my blog today, please offer up a prayer for her, the surgeons, the doctors, the hospital staff, the nurses and all involved in the surgery.

I will try to update throughout the day via my twitter account, if you'd like to know how things are going.

Thanks for all your support friends. It's going to be a long day and I appreciate your thoughts and prayers more than you know.