All is Well...

...or at least as well under the circumstances. My mom came through the surgery well. She had a partial hip replacement. They explained to me that the ball of the leg in the hip had broken...a piece had broken off of the ball... and they were going to rebuild it into a round ball again, take out the piece that broke off of it.

I've been told that's a better solution than a rod and pins, and not as bad a surgery as a full hip replacement. Anyway, the surgery itself was not my biggest fear. My biggest fear was putting her under general anaesthesia (sp?). My mom has memory issues. She's well oriented to time and place, but ask her what happened 10 minutes ago, and she is unable to say. Not so bad. Problem is that when you put someone with that mental state and age under general, it often speeds up and exaggerates the memory issues, from which they never recover. Basically, I was afraid that she'd wake up from the surgery, and be gone mentally speaking, i.e. not remember us or my dad.

FORTUNATELY, they did not put her under general. They were able to give her an epidural, and complete the surgery that way. She breathed on her own during the whole thing. Minutes after the surgery she was somewhat alert, and recognized my sissy and me immediately. So, all is well for the moment.

She'll probably remain at the hospital for a couple of days, then be transferred to a rehab center for about 21 days, to try and get her on her feet. The doc said that patients often recover "at step back" from the surgery. Meaning fully abulatory patients need a walker or cane. If a patient needed a walker or cane before, they often need a wheelchair after, etc. So, we're hopeful that she'll be able to get back on her feet...at the very least enough to be able to transfer from bed to chair or chair to toilet, etc.

While my mom is in the hosp/rehab, I'll be working to make their house a bit more accessible in case she needs to use a wheelchair.

So, that's that. Dot is on duty tonight, staying at the hospital with her in case she needs anything. I'll try and relieve her in the morning.

I think I'll sleep really well tonight.