Surgery Update!

Hello all! Surgery is over! This morning, we were all up at 5 am in order to be at the hospital by six. I was staying about half an hour away from the hospital, and you all know how excited I was to be driving in the dark again. Not only was it dark, but it was snowing! I was a nervous wreck trying to drive to the hospital on the interstate and keep up with traffic, all the while envisioning all the ways I could die tragically in a pile up accident when all the geniuses around me realized the roads were too slick to be driving the normal 65 miles an hour. I am fine, though, and so is our brave little patient!

Through out her surgery, the nurse came in about ever 45 minutes to update us on what was happening and how things were going. It was very considerate of them. They were able to repair her mitral valve without replacing it, so that means she got to keep all her own pieces. She is happy about that.

When we got to see her, I couldn't help but think that she looked beautiful, though she was still covered in iodine all around her neck, no make up, hair disheveled, lying there with her eyes closed and mouth hanging open. She is so strong, and her spiritual heart is so big. Saying goodbye to her this morning was the hardest thing I had to do all day. She is ok, though. She didn't even lose her humor. The drugs make her speech near impossible, and she did finally fall to sleep again, but not before playing a terrible joke on us.

Have any of you ever seen The Notebook? If you have, you may or may not remember the wife having Alzheimer's and her mild freak out during an episode. Her husband would visit her every day, and very seldomly, she would have an episode where she would remember him for a very short time. During that time, he would dance with her or hold her and kiss her, but as soon as that episode was over, she had no clue who he was again. Anyway, at one point, he was calling her "Allie" and she freaked out, screaming, "Why are you calling me that?! Why are you calling me that?! NURSE!" Well, because Nicole's eyes were closed and she was in a drunken stupor, we didn't even see it coming when she yelled out as loud as her sedateness would allow and full of emphasis, "Why are you calling me that?! Why are you calling me that?!" The first time she said it, we were all trying to console her. It wasn't until the second time she said it that we realized what she was doing. The nurse had stepped in to tell her everything was ok, and we had to explain to the nurse that Nicole was simply quoting her favorite line from The Notebook to scare us. Then Nicole proceeded to slur out, "I'm shhuust shoking."

On that note, I believe all is well here, and I am off to see if our brave little patient is awake again. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. I am on my way home tomorrow, so again, keep me in your thoughts on my drive back home. Thanks again! :)