...and it ain't over yet. Is that statement indicating a good result with your Mom, Jack, or a bad one? That’s a good question. And the only one who might answer us isn’t saying yet. I sure don’t know. And my Mom (Rae Russel) isn’t telling either. She can talk only a bit, low and through congestion, but her eyes are open and clear. The picture with this posting was taken yesterday, Wednesday (10.8).
So what’s new? I’ll make this mercifully brief as I could easily write 2000 words on this one issue: She goes in for yet another operation today or tomorrow. And that just sucks.
The Good News is it’s not, I repeat, NOT, another tumor-removing (#1) or clot-removing (#2) brain surgery. #3 is instead a simple “surgical procedure” to put a feeding tube into her stomach.
Parenthetically, market research reveals the word “operation” is upsetting to people. As is use of the word “drill” in a dentist’s office. So we simply change words. Operation become “procedure.” Pain becomes “discomfort.” Drill becomes “instrument.” Bush became President. Problem solved. You know the Orwellian drill.
This next “procedure” will put a tube into her stomach (aka, a “peg”). Then they don’t have to put the nasal tube back in, the one that’s been feeding her through her nose because my Mom still isn’t eating on her own yet. The tube was clogged yesterday and so was removed. That’s the photo you see with this post. Not only does a nasal line clog easily, and make meds delivery harder, it eventually causes nose and/or throat irritations and infections. Re-insertion is painful and distressing to our heroine, Rae Russel.
A nasal/throat line also becomes increasingly uncomfortable as my Mom continues to (gradually it seems) wake up. She IS regaining fuller consciousness, really she is, it’s just frustratingly slow.
The Bad News is she will go under anesthesia again, and then endure another (minor body, not major head) surgery. Not good. We hate whacking her consciousness down when it’s MORE consciousness we’re after. And any surgery is of course another trauma to her already tired 83-year-old body. And as I keep noting, just being in a hospital bed for a month could kill a moose. My Mom is apparently tougher than a moose—but you all know that.
As happens in hospitals—and we don’t mean jut with our family; there are many other families in their own battles there—you are often given the choice between lousy and terrible and left to determine which is which without patient (that’s my Mom) input. On the whole I’d rather be vacationing in downtown Detroit.
Some more Good News, though you may notice I’m slow in getting to it: she is awake more often now. Yesterday her eyes were open and clear and her breathing relaxed for about 3.5 of the 5 hours I was there. She is making progress, but it’s just—did I say this yet?—so slow. We noted yesterday in another meeting with our wonderful neurologist, Dr. McCarthy, that we began this ride expecting a speedy recovery from brain surgery and have shifted, it seems, to the unpleasant (meaning I don’t want it) slower trajectory of a brain trauma healing we know only too well, thanks to Andy. As I’ve reported before, Karen and I keep likening Rae’s healing to Andy’s slow recovery from his brain trauma years ago. But Andy, as I’ve noted before, was 40 then, and Rae Russel is 83. Guess which brain, and which body, heals faster in doctor-tested, clinically-proven trials?
How interesting to have Andy switch sides with Rae on this one. He’s on our side of the net for this tournament.
If all goes well—and here’s the hoping, praying, well-wishing job where you come in—she’ll recover from the GI tube insertion “procedure” in just 2 or 3 days—and then can be transferred out of her San Rafael hospital. We hope to move her 15 miles north, to the Petaluma rehab facility she was in before her first surgery. This puts her back in her home town and closer to dear friends and neighbors like Rick and Cecilia and her dog Nellie, a healing love triangle with my Mom in the middle.
Wish her luck!
With love,
Jack (no, not Russel, that’s her maiden name) Gescheidt
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