7.30.11

AYNSLEY:
Mom was admitted to Overlake last night with the plan to have surgery this morning at 11am. The good thing about morning surgery is that she's able to eat dinner the night before and then sleep away the 12 hours she's supposed to fast. The pre-op team ended up coming even earlier than anticipated for her, so this morning was basically wake up, take medications and go to surgery. Ross was able to be there with both my parents, which I know was great for Mom.

Surgery went well-our fabulous neurosurgeon, Dr. L, did both the lumbar procedure and the head resuturing. Mom went into recovery for about an hour, then into the ICU. They will stay in the ICU for the next few nights.

She was in a lot of pain when she woke up, but by the evening it was managed. She's been able to sleep a good amount and eat a little through the pain, which I take as a good sign. The result of the surgery is that they are able to drain 10 ccs of cerebral spinal fluid an hour through the lumbar intervention. She needs to stay at a 45 degree angle until Tuesday (not sure if that's morning or evening); I'm assuming that is to also maintain the swelling.

All in all, another successful surgery. I hope this is the last, though-it's exhausting and emotional for Mom (and us all), and just extremely physically rough. I've only had one surgery in my life: having my wisdom teeth removed. I was terrified of the anesthesia, woke up crying and basically couldn't function for the next few days. And I was in perfect health in my early 20s. Mom has had 3 major surgeries in her chest and 3 brain surgeries in the past 7 months. She never wakes up crying. She never ceases to function.