Wednesday, December 17, 2008

~Thankful Thursday~Update On My Mom



First of all, thank you so much for your prayer for my mom, her surgery today and her recovery. We have felt each of your prayers with so much peace and comfort over the past two days.

Her name is Mary W. for those who like to have a name to call out before the Lord.

So many things have been going on in my heart and through my mind over the past two days since I received the phone call from my mom at 1 PM yesterday.

She was finally put into a room at 11 PM last night after spending 7 hours in the ER. Mom was in great spirits and was "clowning" around with the doctors and nurses. As long as she wasn't moving...she was not in pain, only mild discomfort.

She told us last night laying in the ER that God had been so good to her because at 82 years, she has only had 2 previous surgeries...a broken hip 23 years ago and a replacement of that previous surgery 9 years ago. She takes one prescription and that is Fosamax (for bones) once a week. That is amazing!

My oldest son was so upset by what had happened to his Nanny...he told her that this wasn't supposed to happen to her. Her reply was "why not me?" because everything happens for a reason.

A friend of hers told her this morning before surgery that she was so sad that my mom was in the hospital, broke her hip and needed surgery. My mom told her "don't be sad, I am right where God wants me to be and He knew yesterday morning where I would be last night." Wow...what peace and inspiration!

We did not get much sleep last night, only about 3-4 hours before the orthopedic doctors came in at 7 AM to talk to us. This is the first time that we had spoken with them since she arrived at the hospital. They told us that their schedule was full for today, so they were planning on doing it tomorrow.

However, around 10 AM, the nurse came back in to tell us that they were going to do it today...sometime in the afternoon but no specific time. I tried numerous times to get in the shower before visitors started arriving but kept being delayed by the phone and text messages. Finally, I had stuck one foot in the shower when I here the nurse come back in and say "we are going now!". I jumped back out of the shower, dressed and off we went.

They took her into surgery around 12:15 PM and she was back in the room around 3:45 PM. It broke my heart to see and hear how much pain she was in. We managed to get her some more pain medicine and she went to sleep. It was good sleep cause she was SNORING!

She woke up briefly when her pastor came by to see her and she tried to eat a cracker. It began to make her sick at her stomach. We got them to give her some medicine for nausea, which put her to sleep again. My sister spent the night with her tonight and she was sleeping soundly again when I left her.

As I lay there on the couch last night/wee hours of the morning...I was praying and thanking God for His hand of protection in her accident today (now, yesterday). As painful and upsetting as her accident was...it could have been so much worse. These are the things that came to mind that I began to thank God for:

  • When she fell, she landed on her left hip...not her right one that had been replaced twice. If she had broken the right one, she would have probably been wheelchair bound because there won't have been enough bone left to repair.

  • God gently guided her down in her fall to the concrete that left her with a single break of the thigh bone. Yes, she had some bone loss and they had to do extra work to repair it, but it wasn't crushed and they didn't replace the bone, socket or ball with artificial parts.

  • The security door didn't close all the way behind her when she fell. She was home alone. If the door had clatched...she would have laid outside in the freezing cold and either froze to death or laid there until after 6 PM when my sister got home from work. PTL!

  • She was able to sit up on her bottom, use her arms to lift her body and scoot backwards up the steps, over the door threshold and into the kitchen.

  • She was able to pull herself up on the table to see where the cordless phone was laying and call my sister first and then me for help. I'm thankful that the phone wasn't on the kitchen counter or elsewhere when she needed it the most.

  • I was able to get a hold of my brother, who called a friend of our family that works in town, he is an EMT to get to her before any of us could arrive there.

  • The roads had thawed out enough to get her to Memphis to the Baptist East Hospital instead of stopping at the smaller..."local" hospital where she had a bad experience with her first hip fracture in 1985 and refused to go there again.

God's hand was in this every step of the way and we are so thankful for that. Everything happens for a reason and there is a purpose for this too! Again, thank you for your prayers....I wish that I had the time to drop by each of your blogs and personally thank you but I've exhausted. I love each of my "everyday" friends and my precious bloggy friends.

Please continue to pray for a full recovery as my mother is a very, very active 82 year old...mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. God bless you!

P.S. Say a short one for me too...I'm not finished with my Christmas shopping, wrapping or baking...yikes...time is running out fast!

For more Thankful Thursdays...visit Iris at Grace Alone.

Have a wonderfully blessed day!

10 comments:

  1. I love you my friend, thanks for the update. May God continue to watch over your dear mom. I am praying for you also.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So glad to hear the surgery went well. Will be praying for you all. Take care now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jennifer,

    I've had some computer problems off and on, and I'm just now catching up with your Mom.

    So many things you're thinking of that God had His hand in!! The phone, the way she fell--all of the things you listed--thanks to God for these!!

    I'll be praying for you Mom and for you!! And, everything isn't finished for CHRISTmas, it's okay!! Don't exhaust yourself any further than you already are!! People know and understand.

    Right now, your Mom is the most important item on your CHRISTmas list of "to-do's".

    Beth

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for sharing about your mother & all the things to be thankful for in this!! Will pray for your mom! may you & your family have a most blessed Christmas!♥

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your mom is an amazing woman. That is such an answer to prayer. Will continue to pray for a speedy and painless recovery.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh what a praise!! I have tears in my eyes reading this as I remember my own family experiences and can only imagine what you are all feeling (I can relate to your son's thoughts!!). What a grateful, grateful praise I have that this has gone as it has and that you are all able to be there for your mother. My prayers are with you. Have a blessed Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for sharing your "thankful" perspective on your mother's injury and surgery. What a blessing a positive outlook and strong faith can bring to a challenging situation. I pray that your mother's recovery goes well and that you accomplish all you need to with continued peace and praise! It sounds like your mother taught you well.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I will pray for your mother, I have been busy this week and have not been able to check blogs as much so I am just now reading this... but I am and will be praying for her and for all of you.

    Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
  9. HE is the great orchestrator isn't he??? Amazing....all those "little" things that make such a difference in the hard times. What an awesome God we have!!

    hugs to you Jen as I am sure you are feeling the pressures of life right now.

    Kim :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow! I hope I have the same kind of attitude of your mother's when I'm that age. What a testimony! I am so glad that the surgery went well. Will continue to pray for a speedy recovery. I'll also pray that you finish all your Christmas shopping, wrapping and baking.

    Love ya,
    Beth

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by today and sharing your heart felt thoughts with me. As we ride "Through the Storms of Life" together, chances are...your situation is different than mine. However, we serve the same awesome God, King of Kings who is in complete control and it all belongs to Him anyway...He wants to give you the very best. Be encouraged my friend, God loves you!

Thank you again for taking the time to visit me at "Through the Storms of Life".

Playlist


Get a playlist! Standalone player Get Ringtones