Emergency Surgery..& a 'Good Sign'..

Well, so much for a relaxing Labor Day weekend.. My Mom had a Dr Appt last Friday (the 31st) at about 9 in the morning up at the Moran Eye Center at the U of U. She has been having a lot of trouble with her eye recently. She has had other health issues with her eyes, but her right eye has really been bothering her lately. She started to see 'floaties' and scheduled an appt with her Dr about 2 weeks ago and they told her at that time, it was the Vitreous Gel (Which is the clear solution that fills the space between the lens and the retina of the eyeball. 'When the gel-like vitreous occasionally tugs on the light-sensitive retina. They may be a warning sign of a detached retina. When people reach middle age, the gel-like vitreous begins to liquefy and contract. Some parts of the vitreous form clumps or strands inside the eye. The vitreous gel pulls away from the back wall of the eye, causing a posterior vitreous detachment. It is a common cause of floaters.')

Well, when my Mom went in to the first appointment they told her that it was just the floaters and to watch it carefully. She had the check-up appointment scheduled for Friday. When she got there the Dr's decided that she needed to have the surgery done. She had 5 tears on her retina, which if she didn't have the surgery, it could have caused the total detachment of the retina, and she could have gone blind in that eye. So, when she called me at about 10 on Friday morning and told me what was going on, I was really scared. They only have one operating room, and it was booked all day with other surgeries. The Dr's wouldn't let her leave, or eat anything because if they had a cancellation, they could get her right in. Well, she ended up waiting till about 5 or 6 before they took her back. Will, Kale (my brother), my Grandma, and I were all in the waiting room till about 8:30. We went back and sat with her for about 30 minutes or so, while the Dr's explained everything. We got out of the Hospital around almost 10. Will just drove back to our apartment and I drove my Mom home in her car. We had to stop to pick up a couple prescriptions, one for pain and one for nausea. Then I drove her home and helped with a few things. I just drove myself home in her car, because I needed to pick her up again in the morning at about 7:45. (yeah, tell me how much fun that sounds..) I didn't get home Friday night till about midnight or so.

On Saturday morning I got up at about 6:00 and got ready, then drove out to pick up my Mom to take her back up to the Moran Eye Center. Her appointment was at 8:30. The Dr's checked her out, and said it looked ok and normal.. (I thought it looked pretty bad, it was all puffy and her eye was all red, but if they say it looks good then it must be ok.) Anyway, she has 3 different eye drop prescriptions that she has to make sure she puts in her eye at certain times of the day. We picked those up on the way back from the Dr's office. Then I hung out with her for a bit, and played with the wiener dogs too.

On Sunday, I drove out to spend some time with her and just make sure everything was ok. Her eye looked a lot more swollen on Sunday, but that's probably to be expected. I stayed till about 6 and then came home. She let me borrow some movies, one of them was 'Blades of Glory', which was a pretty funny show. Will Ferrell is such an idiot. I think he's hilarious.

Today, I went out again, around 10:30 to spend some time with my Mom and run some errands for her. She hasn't felt up to going anywhere, so I just took care of the stuff for her instead of her coming with me. I had to go get 'Leave of Absence' papers from her work that we need to have the Dr's fill out and sign. And I needed to get a refill for her for one of her prescriptions. I am going to have to meet one of her Dr's tomorrow to have them fill out the papers. They have to be filled out 10 days after the 1st work day missed, (which would have been Saturday.) So, I just want to get it taken care of so the process can get going. She'll have to be off work for at least 2 weeks. Then they said they'd see about letting her back to work with 'light duty' after that. If not, they said a total of 4 weeks off. She'll have a check-up appointment next Tuesday, and they'll probably determine that then. It hasn't been a fun process for my Mom to deal with. She's been in a lot of pain. She has to keep her head down for a whole week, and when she's sleeping she has to stay on her left side. They put a 'gas bubble' behind her eye to keep everything in place while the 'tears' are repairing themselves. The way the Dr explained it was, "It's like when you're putting up wallpaper, you have to have someone hold it up against the wall while your working on it, or while it's drying- so on, so forth.." Anyway, she has to keep her nose to the ground when she is standing, sitting, or anything for a whole week. The gas bubble has to stay right behind her eye to help it heal. What a pain in the butt. She already is getting a neck-ache.

On my way back to the apartment from the house on Saturday, it was kinda sprinkling/raining a bit, and a rainbow came out. It was so pretty. I had to pull over as soon as I pulled out of my Mom's driveway, so I could take some pictures. Then as I was driving, I put the camera on the steering wheel and took some more. (I'm not a superstitious person by any means, but it kinda seemed like a 'good sign' to me...) It just made me feel good to see something like that after everything that happened this weekend. And please don't get me wrong, I am not complaining at all. I really enjoy doing things for other people and helping my Mom out when she really needs it, makes me feel good. I just want to make sure she is taken care of. I love my Mom so much, and I want her around for a while. I would do anything to help prolong that. I really don't know what I would do without her. I don't want it to sound like my brothers don't help out at all, because they do, I just have more of that 'motherly instinct' and don't need to be asked to do things.. They are boys, so they don't think about that kind of stuff. But, they do help out.

I'll keep ya'll updated with the fun!