About my mom...

[jgbphoto]

More of Mom's recovery

Hi,
Mom's physical therapy is coming along. She walked to the nurse's station and back. She doesn't appreciate hospital food. Apparently she is coming home via ambulance today or tomorrow. Then she'll stay in an acute rehab facility.

The pain medicine and anesthesia have taken a while to work out of her body, so she has had some goofy moments. But she is definitely sounding way better than three days ago.

Getting her well is all I can think about.

Bye,
Laura

[Cakedec]

Dear Laura,

So glad to hear that your Mom continues to progress well with her recovery.
She is so lucky to have a loving daughter like you to look after her. I think about her sometimes when lying in bed at night and say a prayer for her. She is inspiring to me when I feel like my own surgery recovery is going slowly (7 weeks).

Let us know how she does through rehab and when she comes home.

Deb

[Shari]

Hi Laura,

I often wonder, who has the more difficult task during the recovery process. The patient or the attending loved one???

Just trying to let you know, that our thoughts are with you as well as your incredibly strong Mom!!! It must run in the family!!!

Shari

[jgbphoto]

Two weeks after surgery

Hi,
My mom made the journey from SF to San Diego on Monday in an ambulance. Dad was on board. Eleven hours and they had to trade ambulances because the brakes went bad on the first. They were also detoured just north of LA because of a grass fire blocking the main highway. So, a long trip was longer. Mom had to be strapped to the gurney because of liability, but they made it! Now she's in our home town and Dad can visit her and still go to work. She's 45 minutes from my home in a rehab hospital, where she's working on walking and recuperating.

She's fully responsive now. Still feeling a lot of pain, she takes vicodin every 5 hours. She looks good. She's gotten taller through the torso, although I haven't heard anything about inches gained or whether the surgery will help her get off the oxygen she's been on twenty four hours a day for two years.

My feeling is that this will be a long journey for her and our family. She plans to teach gardening again in a year. By then she'll be 74. She has strong goals!

Hope everyone who reads this is fine, hanging in there, enjoying life.
I pray for all of you. Thanks for the support.

By the way, if it were me, I'd have the surgery when I was younger. But the progress in the technology has improved so much, maybe it's ok that she waited until now. I have to tell you, she had the most severe scoliosis I've ever seen.

Laura

[macky]

Laura and your family,
I just want you to know how very pleased I am that you dear mum is home at last. It has been a long battle for you all hasnt it. You are all in my prayers and also the prayers of my friends, I too think of you all every night, and others on here that are facing operations and all.
Now that your mum has been straightened I do so hope that it will have given her lungs more room ,as she wont have them squashed any more, and by doing so you will find that she wont need her oxygen any more. That is my most asked prayer for her.
Golly out and about teaching gardening, bless her, she will too Laura, nothing will keep her down she has such a fantastic attitude to life. How lucky you are all to have such a loving family.
Thank you for saying that it would have been easier to have had the operation younger. I think in fact I know your mothers experience will be a tribute to others who are contemplating their own lives with the operation.,
I do love to hear how she is doing, thankyou

Bless you all Macky. xx(for your mum)

[makaylasmom]

How wonderful!

I'm so glad to hear of her progress. She is truly an inspiration to me and others on here I know. May God bless you and your family!

Angela

[Cakedec]

Your Mom is our Mother Theresa!

So glad to hear that your mother is in the rehab hospital and recovering well. Sounds like she'll be in her home again before you know it.

Wish that I was close enough to take her gardening classes!

Deb

8 wks post-op
from posterior surgery 7/24/06
T70,L76
30 degrees correction

[Shari]

Hi Laura,

Just wanted to send your mother and her loving family, all my best too!!! She is TRULY amazing and an inspiration to all of us.

Thank you for keeping us informed of her progress!!!

Shari

[jgbphoto]

Physical therapy and a healthy appetite

Hi guys, Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement!
Hope you're well.

Mom's doing great in physical therapy. She walks from her room to the therapy room, does her exercises, and walks back, all with a walker. It's amazing how the body will bounce back.

One thing we talked about today is how much it helped that she was basically healthy going into the surgery. Slower, with reduced breathing capacity, but basically in good health. She and Dad think that's what's helped her recover so well. Age doesn't seem to be as much of a factor so far. Of course, her bones are brittle, so that's the down side of aging.

Lots of people on the forum mention how much fear and anxiety they have before surgery. I asked Mom and Dad about that. Mom says that she thinks if she hadn't had such confidence in her surgeon it might have made her more nervous. She says it was a lot of hard work going up to SF to do the preops and operation, but it was worth it.

She's looking so good. I think she has more energy than before the surgery. She used to take three naps before lunch and today, none! Her color is better than pre-surgery. I just can't write how grateful I am. She really thought she was just going to die of copd. That stands for some obstructive lung disease. I know those prayers for her lungs are really helping.

Thanks for being there, it has helped to be able to write about these things.

Take care,
Laura

[Singer]

Hi Laura,

Your updates about your mom are a joy to read. I'm so happy she's doing well. You're such a good daughter!!

All best,
Chris

[lelc2002@yahoo]

Laura---you are a great daughter! All my best to your mom! Ly

[makaylasmom]

I'm so thrilled to hear that your mom is doing so great! What an inspiration!!!

[zarafa]

about my mom

I have been a member of this board for over a year and have not read about a 73 year old having surgery until now. I just had my 74th birthday and am most interested in learning about your mom. My curves are severe and causing more problems with each passing year. May I ask if your mother's surgery was extensive? Was it posterior only? In what city was the surgery done? Thank you for getting involved with this board.
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double curve....85 and 87 degrees...no surgeries...relatively normal life until very recently.

[jgbphoto]

name of Mom's surgeon and hospital

Hi,
Good morning, afternoon, evening!

I was asked Mom's particulars by Zarafa. Mom went to the UCSF Medical Center and was evaluated and operated on by Dr. Serena Hu. She's very nice, very caring, highly competent (to say the least), and I got the impression right away that she works on a large number of people who have scoliosis. She was able to immediately look at Mom and decide on what could be done, what not to do. Mom adored her.

I think we could have found a surgeon in LA, but the spine center at UCSF does so many scoliosis surgeries! The friend who had hers done there first says they do it over, and over, and over. They are set up for the preops and recovery very efficiently. The travel part can be a pain, but we learned to grin through security and order in-flight oxygen, and she was brought home by ambulance. It's also possible to go home by plane, but not at the stage Mom was at when she came home. It was worthwhile finding the best place to do it, even out of town. Plus, there's so much to do in SF.

Her surgery was 4 and a half hours long, all done posteriorly. At Mom's age, with her reduced lung capacity, they didn't want to subject her to a very long surgery. Still, she had screws and rods put in from her neck to the top of her low back. And of course she had the bone fusing. I'll find out the exact vertebrae and curvatures sometime from her doctor. She had a double "S" curve. The rib hump was left for a possible future operation.

Boy, she looks better than ever. The color is now in her face, whereas when we wheeled her into the airport before the operation, her face was drained, she was tired all the time, and she looked in pain.

She showed off how she can stand up out of a chair by herself yesterday.
She's still a bit goofy on the meds.

Going from the hospital to an acute rehab hospital has made all the difference in making sure she's cared for correctly. She goes home in 4 days and we've hired part time nursing.

I think she's truly going to be in much better shape than before, as her bones strenghten and grab onto the hardware. Lots of methods for that, and we're following all of them.

Take care,
Laura

[Linda G]

Laura

I can't tell you how much your posts about your mother's journey has helped me. I am having fusion surgery in Dec. At age 63 I have been very concerned. Your mother's story has been quite an inspiration of courage and faith. I thank God she is doing so well. Please tell her she has become my hero- Linda G.