Hey all! Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner (b/c I know you were all just waiting by your computers for an update ). My mom went into surgery yesterday (Wed. the 3rd) at noon and it took about 2 hours. The doctor came out and told that me EVERYTHING WENT FINE! WOO-HOO!!! They found the small mass that was seen on the MRI, checked it, and it was benign (non-cancerous), but that wasn't what they were looking for. Then they DID find the parathyroid...the little sucker was hiding behind a bunch of veins. So they were able to take it out as planned and it was also benign. He said they checked out the right side...didn't go in, just felt around somehow, and it seemed fine.
So pretty much I would say that the surgery went according to plan; how it SHOULD have gone or how they usually go when they're successful...routine, that's the word I'm looking for...it was routine. No complications or problems during the surgery.
The reason that it took me a whole day to write back is b/c ugh...hospital stuff ALWAYS takes SO LONG. She got done at 2pm and I thought, yay, she'll have a room by 3pm. She didn't get a room until 5PM. So I was in the waiting room from from…well I sat with her in the preparation room from 10am-12pm, then was in the waiting room for 5 hours. And though I wanted to do a quick update, my phone was dying.
She has her own room (yay! All the rooms in the new building are private). It's pretty nice, all new looking with a private bathroom and shower, and a widescreen LCD TVs that isn't even set up for HD/widescreen so the shows were all stretched which I thought was ridiculous and immediately wanted to fix the TV to the correct aspect ratio. Anyway...
I got up there JUST as she did so she was pretty out of it. She was pale and had a bandage on her neck, her throat hurt and she was hoarse. But other than that, she was in good spirits, just a little confused and such from being anesthetized, not too bad though. She said she woke up in recovery not knowing where she was at first, but when I saw her she was coherent and everything, she just kept falling asleep on me.
I stayed for about 2 hours; Jeff came in to visit for a bit since she was so sleepy. They brought her food and I couldn't believe what they brought...spaghetti and chicken breast, green beans, bread, what looked like vanilla pudding. All she could eat was the pudding and have some water.
So I stayed until about 7pm, had to go to the store, and by the time I got home I was hungry and sooo tired ...hadn't eaten all day. After eating and settling in and making calls, I didn't even want to go near the computer, fell asleep on the couch until 11:30pm, woke up at 1am and went to bed.
I didn't wake up finally until about 11:30am this morning (!) and I didn't want to waste any time getting ready to go see her! So I got ready and got there around 1pm. She had just gotten through walking around a bit and was then sitting up and they brought her lunch. What is it with me getting there when she gets food? They brought her some noodles with beef chunks...yuck. She was able to eat the noodles, also some broth, and milk.
So she was MUCH better today. Fully awake and alert, in VERY good spirits, hooked up to a regular IV, I don't think they had anything else going into her, just antibiotics last night I believe.
She told me that she was going to be discharged at 7pm today (Oct. 4th) and that the doctor was going to take blood to see if she was okay. I wanted to confirm this with the nurse, and the nurse said the doctor was taking blood AT 7pm and would release her if the results came back okay.
I wondered how long this would take so I asked the nurse, and she said results would take about an hour to come back, and then the discharge process takes about 2 hours. So I asked if she could just stay one more night, b/c that would mean she'd be leaving around 9-10pm, which is ridiculous! The nurse said she'd have to find out from the Dr. and probably the discharge people and she'd let me know. From what she said, it sounded like my mom staying one more night would probably be okay and get approved. If they don't let her...that's just...I'll probably be a bit perturbed. With the second building they now have, Jeff said they should not be hurting for beds.
So I stayed for a couple hours and we just chatted. She said the nurse took her for a walk up the hallway a bit but she used a walker b/c she was still feeling a bit woozy. She said she slept fine last night and felt well except for throat pain and that it hurt to swallow. She said that the doctor visited her this morning and was very pleased with the results. He said that her calcium levels are dropping nicely. She said he was very friendly (we've seen him a lot, but he was very excited to see her doing well and took the time to talk to her). He seems like a nice doctor. He's kind of a jolly fellow and he seems to care about his patients.
So hopefully the next blood test will show that her calcium levels are still dropping or are at least at a good level. The main thing they would be looking for is if they don't drop enough, drop too much, or go up. When she does go home she just has to keep the bandage on her neck dry, and she will have pain meds...that's about it I think. I will most likely be staying all day tomorrow to help with cooking and such b/c it will be too soon for her to be doing that kind of stuff for herself and my dad isn't the greatest at taking care of sick people. And of course go I'll shopping for soft foods. Not sure if I'll stay the night tomorrow night (as long as she doesn't come home tonight, then I would stay tonight). So in all, I was there for about...9 or 10 hours.
I guess that's it. I'm SO relieved that everything went as planned and that it seems she is going to be okay. I hope she starts to feel better physically as well. She didn't feel AWFUL, but she was starting to have problems with fatigue again, which was what started happening when she began to get sick almost 3 years ago, and hyperparathyroidism can cause that. And her organs should be more "protected" now that they don't have all that extra calcium to possibly make them fail or whatnot.
Okay, this was longer than I thought as usual...me and fitting in every detail...I just like to give you all a "picture" of what things are like I guess when all you really need to know is how the surgery went and how my mom is. Thanks for reading and for all of the well wishes. I'm sure they helped a lot! I'll update again, hopefully sooner and shorter.
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