The word from my mom is that she has been transferred to the Health South Rehabilitation Center on W. Lancaster as of last night. I believe that she is in room 3113 A but I'm not sure of it...She called last night to tell me of her whereabouts...she sounds pretty good following her partial hip replacement on Tuesday. I’m not sure yet of how long she will need to stay at the rehab center but I’m very glad she will have access to daily therapy etc. for a while.
Jim made it through his gall bladder removal yesterday. We had to stay at the hospital a lot longer than we had expected but he did get to have a laparoscopic surgery which I assume means his return to normalcy will be faster.
When he was called back to the surgery center at 6:15 am or so he had stepped into the restroom for a sec. I told the nurse that and as we waited, she asked me if I knew her charge nurse, Sue Sudan. I said yes that she was a friend from church. She said that she hoped that Jim had a good sense of humor because although Sue wasn't working that day, she had decorated his room the night before. My response was that he usually did have a good sense of humor so as we got to the room just before she opened the door she turned to Jim and relayed the greeting from Sue that she couldn't be there but had decorated his room. There were pictures of food (from the magazines) cut out and taped up on each wall of the room, on his tray table, and on the pillow of the bed..
We all had a good laugh and Jim said he was just glad that there were no pictures of cups of coffee ---that's what he wanted most.
The reaction of the nurses who had not already been "IN" on the joke was especially funny. They would enter the room and then their mouths would drop open and they would say, "Who did this?" and "How mean?"
The operation itself took about an hour and a half and the doctor, (Paul Stiefel, Mary Hightower's son and Jim's across the street neighbor as he grew up on Martel Ave. and a fellow classmate of mine from elementary school at Meadowbrook to high school at EHHS.) said that his gall bladder was rather "beat-up" and that Jim had most likely been suffering a lot more attacks than he had thought. He said that he had had to sort of "chisel"out the gall bladder so the expectation is that the pain that Jim had been experiencing was caused by the gall stones and the removal of his gall bladder would mean that he could go forth with no more pain in the abdomen area.
They wouldn't let him go home until he "peed" and that was why we didn't leave until about 4:30 pm or so. Patrick even volunteered to “pee” in Jim’s place as we sat there from 10:45 on and waited. I told the nurses that it would most likely be a while since Jim is the “King of Not Stopping to Go to the Restroom” when we are driving on vacation. We all enjoyed the nurse that spent most of the day with us and decided that she was definitely a “perky” person. Congratulations were in order at about 4:15 or so and we got home just in time to receive the meal that our Sunday School Class had prepared. Jim says that he is very sore this morning at the incision sites... I'm sure that he will be getting steadily better. He will be taking some time off from work next week and plans to return to work the following week.
So. that's more than you really wanted to know, I'm sure but I wanted to write it all down so that I can relate it to others too...
Several sad notes: We are both saddened to hear of McKay Brown’s death. She is a long time friend from our Sunday School class at Meadowbrook and will be missed I’m sure by all who knew her Also saw in the paper that John Woodard’s family will be celebrating his dad’s life this afternoon with a memorial service at Handley UMC in FW. .
Thanks again for your prayers and your concerns...I'm hoping that both Mother and Jim will get well quickly because I'm not as good a nurse-caregiver as they are and am thanking God that at least I'm already retired and don't have to worry about school at the same time as trying taking care of them.
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