Friday

Sorry that it has taken so long today to get this blog updated. We knew that it was going to be a rough night for our mom, so we just hated to call her today in case she was sleeping (which she wasn't). Anyway, here is what we have just found out about Mary's night last night and day today. As we guessed, it was a very rough night for her. She was able to sleep pretty soundly from about 10:00-2:00, but at 2:00 she woke up and was very agitated. She kept trying to pull her tubes out, she was very uncomfortable and very disoriented. She was still halucinating and saying things that didn't make any sense, and she was awake and in this state from 2:00am-7:00am. Finally she fell asleep at 7:00, and when she woke up things started to go better. One minor hiccup was that her feeding tube became clogged and so she was not receiving any nutrition for a few hours. And since the doctors had continuously stressed the importance of good nutrition to her healing, the first course of action was to replace the feeding tube. But since Mary was already in such a great deal of pain, she and my mom convinced the doctors to let her try eating instead. The doctors told Mary that if she could eat 2000 calories a day then they would not need to insert another feeding tube. And you know how Mary likes a challenge! So she ate a good lunch and a huge dinner. She had a really good afternoon, and was awake and pretty coherant between 4:00pm-6:00pm. She was talking and even laughed a few times, and acting very much like Mary. What a huge relief!! My mom is really hopeful and optimistic that she will have a much better night tonight. We've both been surprised at how awake she has been during the past 24 hours of recovery. We had really thought that she would be so heavily sedated that she would practically be comatose. But that has not been the case. The pain is really horrific, but the medication they are giving her seems to really be helping her to cope. As I've mentioned earlier, she is not allowed to move or be moved for three days. She is lifting little four pound weights with her arms, as the only part of her physical therapy that she is able to do right now. As for how the she is healing, and how successful the surgery was, we won't know that until Sunday. On Sunday we will really find out a lot. They will put her under one more time and unwrap her legs and donor sites. If she were awake during the unwrapping, the pain would be unberarable. So they will put her under and unwrap everything, and see how her legs have accepted the skin grafts. We'll know a lot more then. But for now her legs are securely wrapped in ace bandages, and all of the donor sites are covered with some type of dressing. My mom thinks that the worst part of this healing and not being able to move is the oozing and seeping from all the donor sites. She can't move, be cleaned, or have the dressing changed. The oozing is perfectly normal, and good even, but extremely disgusting. And she'll be hanging in it until Sunday! So that is all I know! Possibly too much detail for some, but I know that others are wanting to know every little thing. I personally feel a huge sense of relief tonight, knowing that she had such a good afternoon. I hope we all sleep a lot better tonight! Thanks for checking in on Mary! It means so much to her, and to all of us, to know of all the love and concern that has been shown to Mary and our family. Thank you!!!