The Long Road to Walking Again

Well friends, it's been almost 2 months since the last time I put up a blog post. I know, I know, I fail. So since I have been absent for a couple months I will just start up back where we left off...that is, Mom was at the hospital. If you are squeamish you might want to avoid the pictures in the middle/end of this wordy adventure but don't worry they aren't too terrible!

On December 20th, my Mom went in for her 3rd surgery on her right leg in 1 year. Yep, that's right, 1 year. She managed to break her right femur (big bone in the upper half of your leg), her right hip, and then her right femur again. Not a good year for Mom that's for sure. So this time she was going in to get her femur fixed again. Before and after X-rays are to the right...see where the bar was coming loose? YIKES!    -------------->

Now I don't know if it is because we have spent so much time in and out of hospitals for a variety of reasons, but hospitals fascinate me. Especially when they are using cool new technologies like surgical waiting boards. What the heck is a surgical waiting board? Think airport flight information board. Yep that's right, your loved one now has a flight path! Except instead of Dulles to San Diego, it's Arrival to Recovery. Pretty darn cool if you ask me. 

The invalid in Procedure. 

Board Explanation Sheet

But the shine wears off a penny pretty quick when you spend all day (aka 7am to 5pm) in a hospital waiting area. Even a nice hospital waiting area. But I guess that's to be expected when a surgery requires rebreaking somebody's leg and then fixing it up again. Ugh. It was a 4 hour surgery and a 3-4 hour recovery period. Let's just say that by the time Mom was getting ready to be moved to a room, Kelly and I were starving. And tired. Thankfully the nurses gave us directions (an entire sheet of directions...talk about a confusing hospital!) and we were off to the room Mom would end up in. I dropped Kelly off to enjoy the couch while I ran out to get some food before we both fell over in a pathetic puddle. I'd say she got the better end of the deal because she got to enjoy the nicest hospital room any of us have ever been in while I got to drive through Fairfax. This whole experience reminded me why I would never want to live any closer to D.C. than we do. 

It turned out to be an eventful weekend in the hospital for Mom, including bloody leaking bandages (I will spare you this awesome pic), low blood pressure, high temperatures, and a lot of dozing interrupted by a revolving line of nurses. She was finally sprung from the joint two days before Christmas, which is really where the fun began. 

Right after surgery

Ready for the staples to come out

It's been an interesting two months, filled with shots and doctors appointments, lots of TV time and the first hope of walking again since October. 

Because of a history of blood clots, Mom has suffered through rounds of Lovenox after all 3 surgeries this year. Now I've given my fair share of shots to all kinds of animals-dogs, pigs, cattle, sheep, etc but hadn't really tried my hand at humans. Some days I managed to make it painless...other days not so much!

Oops...sorry Mom!

 Look what I found out though...SURPRISE! Thank you pigs for your contribution to keeping my mother safe and healthy :) 

It's been a couple of weeks since Mom has been allowed to put weight on her leg and every day brings a little improvement. The road ahead is still long but it's been an adventure. As usual :) And like the machine says...Caring is Thirsty Work.