Movin' on up

September 12, 2011: Yesterday was another good day for my little momma. After going to the first hour of church, I went to the hospital and saw that she was awake and talking. She asked me if I had brought any "spray". After questioning her a bit, I found out that she wanted some Scentsy spray because she was "stinky". "What kind do you like, Mom?" I asked. "Purple," she said. I'll be taking some "purple" when I go back today! She had 90 minutes of physical therapy, sitting in an upright chair, and then we learned that she was going to be moved up to the 11th floor - into a regular room! So exciting for all of us to be out of the fishbowl of ICU. The PT really wears her out, so she was kind of a zombie the rest of the day, but when Aaron & Linds arrived around 4 pm with their three little darling girls, she perked up again. It was good for them to see that Nana was pretty much "okay" and could see them and talk to them. Mom asked Ally if she had been scared the day of the collapse, and Ally said, "I was a little bit scared." Us, too, sweetie. We are particularly scared right now that the drugged "loopy" state Mom is in will last indefinitely. It's exactly the "little old lady in nursing home" demeanor that is so NOT Mom and that we didn't want to have happen to her. But, we were reassured and comforted when the ICU nurse of the day, Julie, mentioned to Dionne that she is doing "really well" and that when patients heal from whatever sort of oxygen deprivation to the brain they've encountered, they often have this "craziness" that takes a few weeks to "wear off" before they are back to normal. Oh, how we pray for that outcome. Right now, her "silliness" is kind of funny, but it is not our Lois. She's in there, but she seems rather far away.

Today, she will be evaluated by the cardiologist docs and it will be determined if she is ready to have a pacemaker/ICD implanted to stimulate her heart and keep it steady and regular. Yesterday she was telling people that she was going to have "open heart surgery" on Monday, but we'd quickly tell her, no, Mom, you're having a simple procedure done to put in a "pocket" to hold this life-saving device. Still, she was worried. If the procedure doesn't happen today, it will be tomorrow. We were told that she has to have the pacemaker/ICD before she can leave the hospital, so we are grateful that the decision has already been made and was not left up to us or to her. There have already been too many hard decisions made with still more to go. By the end of the week, we could be looking at where she should go for rehab - whether it be to stay here in Salt Lake or to her favorite Coral Canyon in St. George. I am torn by both choices. No matter where she is, it will be hard for me to help her as I struggle with my own health issues. I suppose it will be a matter of where she'll be comfortable and how many WILL be available to help her.

As all of this is happening with Mumsy, I am slated for a day of scans just a few floors away from her hospital room. There are "orders" for two or three different CT scans, a PET scan, and a brain MRI later this afternoon. I am nervous, but prayerful. Miracles have abounded and I pray they will continue. It will be a stressful day - and a stressful week - but we've gone this way before and can sort of expect what happens next. Just wish none of us were even aware of the battle against melanoma...