My Mom!

On Sunday I got a call on my cell from Tricia saying, "Have you heard from Mom and Dad?" Since I had been out of the house since 8:30, my answer was "No, what's up?"

Apparently Dad called Tricia's husband Jeff and told him that Mom was going in for surgery, something wrong in her abdomen.  But now Dad wasn't answering his cell and the caller ID on that call said Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.....

So I had 45 minutes between meetings and I drove down there.  She wasn't there, not in the ER or surgery. Huh?  I called Payson Hospital, nope, Timpanogas, nope! I drove home at a loss of what to do. Just them my brother Brett called to say that Dad had called him and had told him they were in Mt Pleasant.  What?  Mt Pleasant for surgery?  So Tricia and I decided to drive down there after my last meeting.

This is what happened....

7:30 Saturday night, Mom started feeling intense abdominal pain, sharp, shooting pain.  She had felt this before but it usually went away in a couple hours, but she hadn't had an episode for over a year.

By 12:00 she couldn't take it any longer.  Dad tried to convince her to go to Utah Valley, but she couldn't make it that far. So they drove to Mt Pleasant and went to the county hospital (which is tiny!).

They gave her tons of pain medication and it still wasn't touching it.  When they asked what pain level she was at 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst, she told them she was at a 20.  And this is a lady who gave birth to 8 children all natural....she's a tough cookie.

(Even the next day when she talked about the pain, her chin quivered just remembering it.)

After a cat scan and blood tests, nothing showed in the results.

The surgeon decided to do a little scope, because her pain level was so high.

As soon as he opened her up he found dead (black) small intestine tissue. 14 inches of it to be exact.  What he explained had happened is that she had some scar tissue attached between her fallopian tube and her ovary that created a little loop.  The small intestine worked its way through the loop and got strangulated and died.  All during the hours of 7:30 pm and 8am.  He removed and and reattached the small intestine and cleaned up the scar tissue.

Now because she is in her 70s, she has to stay in the hospital for 5 days to make sure everything gets working properly.  She couldn't eat anything and they were pumping any natural fluids out of her stomach via the tube up her nose for the first 3 days, but now the tube is out and she is sipping on bouillon and eating jello.  She's thrilled!  She's walking up and down the hallways like a crazy fast Grandma with an IV pole and she has a bunch of staples keeping her together from her belly button on down.

Josie and I went to visit her on Tuesday and brought her some wall art.  I think she looks amazing for having just gone under major abdominal surgery!

Get Better Soon Grandma!

WE LOVE YOU!