Mom Had Surgery

Well, mom had her surgery on Sunday night. She's recovering in the intensive care unit and it looks like she'll be there for a while. The doctors said that it might be a couple of months.

My mind is swimming. I don't know what to think of first. My patience runs out at times and I become restless. I try to keep myself busy by either talking to the nurses, reading magazines, or watching television in the ICU waiting room. Sometimes I go online to check facebook and emails.

Last Wednesday, I got a call from my brother that mom was in the hospital, but it was not something to be alarmed about yet. By Friday, they had found out that she had a brain tumour and needed to be operated on immediately. As soon as I hung up the phone, I booked my flight to Canada. My husband made arrangements to stay with the kids for the next two weeks.

I flew out Saturday morning from Hamburg, caught a connecting flight in Paris, and arrived in Toronto by late afternoon. I took the Robert Q to Windsor in the evening and was at my parents' house by midnight. I only slept a few hours that night. I woke up at early to get ready, so I can see my mom at the hospital for eight o'clock. My brother and his fiancee were picking me up.

I was lucky that the surgery was postponed. I got to spend the day with her. She was talkative and joked around, but the closer it got to the surgery, the more worried she became. Mom has always been a brave and strong woman, but this time I could see fear in her eyes. I wasn't sure what to say or do to distract her. I would tell her stories about the kids and that seemed to work for a short bit.

Around four o'clock, mom was brought down to the second flour for surgery. We waited an hour and a half before they took her in, and then directed us to the waiting room. The surgery was scheduled for two hours but it took longer than expected. By nine o'clock, my dad and I had become restless and were worried about mom. I had to get up and walk around. I found a cooking magazine to distract me the last hour.

The doctor finally came out at 10:30 pm. The surgery went well and mom was doing fine. The doctor was optomistic that mom was going to make a good recovery. The tumour that he had removed was not as aggressive as he thought it was. It could very well be benign. It was going to be sent away to have analyzed.

Well, the hardest part was over. She will be okay. It will be a long road to recovery, but she is still alive. We made it through the first time around, we will definitely make it through this time. It's all in the power of believing along with the power of prayer.