“Ahhhh… what a lovely day” were some of Mum’s first words as they wheeled her from the HDU (high dependency unit) to her recovery ward.
So family and friends, we are pleased to say… Mum is doing really well!
An absolute inspiration to us all, Mum was a bundle of energy and giggles as we waited to get her into surgery. Posing with her surgical socks, not showing any signs of worry for what was ahead. Just sheer determination to rid her body of Deirdre, whilst always holding her smile, and raising others. This mindset continued, after 8 hours under the knife mum reappeared with many tubes, and greeted us with a rather loud “I ammmm doooiiingg fiiiinee!!” bellowing through the oxygen masks.
From the two Mum quotes we’ve shared so far in this blog post, you might be able to tell…morphine is mum’s new best friend this weekend. And we’re thankful! As she has a long few days ahead of her now whilst her body heals and her dependency on the tubes lessens.
Yesterday was a long day of waiting, but in true Mum style she sent us (Neil, Marc, Cara and Sarah) off to the Plymouth Gin distillery and out for lunch. She would have hated us waiting in the hospital the whole time. Despite all our minds thinking of mum all afternoon as you would expect, we ended up having a lovely afternoon together.
And boy was it a long day. She went into surgery around 9am, escorted by a handsome young healthcare assistant (you can tell Cara wrote this bit) and into the hands of an accomplished surgeon. We knew she was in great hands. We were extremely relieved she was actually going to have the surgery that day as 30 minutes before we were told there was a strong chance of not enough beds. But there were, phew!
We all got back to the hospital around 6pm, ordered our cups of tea and waited for Grant, mum’s surgeon, to call. The wait was only half a cup of tea. Mum was out of surgery!! We knew there would be an hour or so before we’d be reunited, but we wanted to be there to greet our mum to her new temporary home, Crownhill Ward, where she will be for about a week.
It was here where we first saw mum, as mentioned before. Tears were shed. But tears of absolute relief and happiness. The surgery went according to plan. A few intercostal pains, but that’s expected considering the severity of the operation. Our lovely mother, your lovely wife, daughter, sister, auntie, step mother, cousin, friend, is on the mend!! And thank you for all your lovely messages, we’ve shared them all with her.
We’ll leave you with a lovely poem Neil had written yesterday, and shared with us. Neil has been nothing short of amazing. They make the perfect couple.
Getting All The Dominoes In Line
And so she goes
Spreadsheet ready
Card sent to Dot
Amnesty adding up
All dominoes in line
And so she goes
Neil will cope
But will he put out the bins
Els to phone
All dominoes in line
And so she goes
Just thinking of others
Never thoughts for self
Just finished the blog
All dominoes in line
And so she goes
Headlong to Plymouth
With no care in the world
Such courage to see
If ever there were spirit
We should bottle it so
Written 05.20 day before op
Neil
