Well today is the day that Mom has her surgery. She’s been in the hospital for about 3 weeks and even though we’re anxious for her to have her surgery, we’re also nervous about it. She’s has had some good days during these 3 weeks, but she’s also has had some bad days and that’s why we’re just a little anxious about this whole thing. A couple of us were able to be at the hospital before she went into surgery and within a couple of hours, we had almost the whole crew there. And then all we had to do was to wait. And wait. It’s so crazy, but that waiting makes you so tired doesn’t it? I don’t know about everyone else, but when I’m waiting for any news and you see a Dr or Nurse tell some other family updates, you sure hope that they’ll head over to your area the next time. But we found out when they started surgery and then over 4 hours later we got the good news. Everything went well. And to be honest, everything went better than what we had ever hoped for. We found out that they didn’t have to put her on any machines and stop her heart which was fantastic. And then we found out that they could go through one of her arteries to replace the valve, which is just truly amazing that they can do this. When we left last night, she was actually sitting up in her chair in ICU and eating. When Daryl and I walked up to her room and saw her, we just couldn’t believe it. Her nurse told us that her progress was unheard of . Go Mom! But as we were leaving the hospital and thinking about these past two months, some people would say good riddance to 2013 and welcome 2014. But I’m grateful for these past two months of 2013. I mean, if Daryl’s heart surgery didn’t go as well as it did, he would have had to have more extensive surgery and that’s not good for anyone. He’s back and work, and even though his shoulder and chest still hurts from his type of surgery, he’s doing so much better and is now getting ready for vacation. As for my Mom? Well, what would have happened if she didn’t have this episode and didn’t know that she had to have her heart fixed? She’s in her 80’s and had gotten out of her heart surgery in the afternoon, and a couple of hours later is sitting in a chair and eating. And even though now when I’m texting on my phone and when I type in ‘I’ the first thing that comes up now is ‘ICU’ because I’ve used it so often, I’m so glad that the only issue that we’re having tonight is trying to come up with a day to have Ma’s Christmas.
Since Mom was doing so good, no one stayed the night with her. She was ready for a good night’s sleep. And while Daryl and I were driving home tonight from the hospital, we were trying to find someplace other than a gas station to eat supper. Even though we both were starving, I just didn’t think a gas station for New Years Eve was something that I wanted to do. But after we were having trouble finding anything – even a gas station didn’t sound too bad. We finally found a Culvers that was open and in we went. I was so hungry for ice cream tonight, so I had cheese curds and a blizzard ice cream for supper. I mean it’s New Years Eve and all!