ICU

Mom is in her recovery room in the Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit. The rule back here is that we can stay with her but they don't want us sleeping back here. She has a big room all to herself and there is a pretty comfy chair, but we will try to stick to the rules. Right now Adrienne is in the lounge, where we have comandeered the two reclining chairs and I am in with mom. When we first came back she was in a semi-sleep state. She kept waking up and becoming agitated. She would try to talk (she can't because of the ventilator) and to lift her hands (she can't because they have restraints on her--to keep her from taking out the ventilator), but we have been able to calm her down by talking to her and stroking her forehead.

So, we will take turns for the rest of the night. With one of us trying to sleep in the lounge while the other keeps vigil. Gretchen will come again in the morning and we will let her be the one to tell her everything that went on in her surgery. She is not going to be happy. Her pain was to the point where she was sorry that she had the first surgery, she is not going to be encouraged that she just had a second, just like the first, which didn't go so well.

Anyway, all of the doctors we have spoken to are encouraging, so we soak up encouragement from them like sponges so that we can try to pass it on to mom when she wakes up. I suggested just keeping her asleep until she is all healed and ready to run out of her on her own, but no one else thought that was a good idea.