Details of Mom’s Diverticulum Surgery 7/23

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Well yesterday was one of the longest and most stressful days ever. Mom got taken back for her surgery at 7am. And thus began the waiting. We got an update around 10am saying that they weren’t able to do everything with the robot like they wanted to (if you recall me talking about this in my last update) so they had to make a 6-8 inch incision on the side of her chest. That’s going to suck because she’s going to have a longer recovery time because of such a long incision. That was all the lady had to tell us, so we went back to waiting. 10am because noon and then 1pm and we still hadn’t heard anything. The lady (she was a volunteer for the hospital, I think) called us up to the desk and told us that she just got a call that they’re still operating but mom had been stable all throughout. I couldn’t believe they still weren’t finished yet. So we waited some more. Finally at 3pm the volunteer said they were done and that the first surgeon wanted to talk to us, Dr. Kirkpatrick. This was the doctor that had tried to use the robots to get the diverticulum out. We went into a room and waited for about 5 minutes for him. He said that he tried the best he could to use the robot to get the diverticulum out, but it was just so big that he couldn’t get the robot over it to get it out so Dr. Glacier had to do it the old fashioned way. He said she was stable throughout the entire surgery, which was nice to hear. Dr. Kirkpatrick said that Dr. Glacier was finishing up putting stitches on the incision and would be out to talk to us in a little bit. So we waited another 30-45 minutes and he came to talk to us. Basically told us the same things. He said that her esophagus was so scarred, which is what caused this. He said she had this going on before she started having trouble with this because the diverticulum was so big. He said she would be in recovery for another hour or two, so he recommended getting some lunch or something and heading back to her regular room because that’s where she would be as long as there wasn’t any complications, otherwise she would be in ICU.

We had some pot pies we had bought from Kroger so we went back up to the room and heated them up and ate them. 3pm because 4… then 5… then 6… and I started worrying. Dad was, of course, worrying too. So we asked a nurse what was going on. She called downstairs and another lady came up and talked to us. She said that she heard at 5:30 that mom should be coming up sometime soon. They said they were just giving her extra time to try and wake up since it was such a long surgery and everything. So we waited some more. Miles had come up to the hospital with Riley and of course she doesn’t like sitting still for very long (she’s a 16 month old, so you can’t blame her or be upset with her) so Miles was walking her all over the hospital and I know he was tired because he had to be at work at 6am Monday morning and he had to get up early again today, Tuesday. Dad said that I should just go, that mom would understand. But me, being hard headed, wanted to stay and see mom. I missed her so much and just wanted to know that she was okay.

A little after 7pm they brought her up. I started crying automatically. There was so many tubes and wires coming out of her… and she didn’t even know I was there. It made me so upset seeing her like that. She’s such a strong person and seeing her weak like that just killed me. I would’ve traded spots for her for anything. Dad kept telling me that it was okay, that in a month we wouldn’t even remember her like this because she would be okay. She couldn’t really even talk because they have a tube going down her nose into her esophagus, I guess, for drainage of everything. The nurses had to get all of her tubes and wires reconnected and everything. After they finished I gave her a kiss and Riley blew her a kiss and said goodbye. I knew she wouldn’t even remember us being there and she needed her rest.

I text messaged dad around 10pm asking how mom was doing. He said that she kept wanting to get up because she thought she had to pee. I guess she didn’t understand that she has a catheter in so she didn’t have to worry about it. She was so used to getting up like every hour or two because they were putting so much liquids in her beforehand that she was peeing all the time. He also said she was a little more awake.

This morning I text messaged dad again and he said that last night the nurse asked if she was in any pain and she looked at dad and said, “He’s still here.” LOL. She’s feeling better then since she’s saying things like that. 🙂 Dr. Glacier was in and he said that as long as everything went okay today they would take the nose tube out tomorrow. So I’m excited for that to happen. He wants her to sit up in a chair today, so hopefully that will go okay.

Thank you to all of my wonderful readers who have been keeping my mom in your thoughts and prayers. It means a lot to all of us.

Courtney P.

I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!

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