Mom's New Pacemaker

The surgery went good and she was alert and talking afterward. Her left arm is in a sling for a couple of days so that she doesn't raise her arm too high and dislodge any of the wires. As it turns out. the lower chamber of heart was not functioning at all. The Dr said that if they had not discovered this, she could have dropped dead at any moment. In my opinion, this may explain why she has had such bad problems w/ her legs throbbing for no reason and not being able to stand and walk well - the circulation was probably cut off. We are still waiting for the blood on her brain to dissipate. She will have another CT scan in 3 months for that.

Anyway, the neurologist and cardiologist will check her again this morning and decide on moving her to a rehab facility this afternoon.

Thanks for all of your prayers and well wishes

For those of you who have asked- yes, I'm fine and hanging in there. I'm exhausted...but ok. My sister has been at the hospital for almost 12 hours a day to be able to talk to the doctors and nurses, etc. My job in this is to call Mom's friends from church, squaredancing and our neighbors to give them updates and to return calls of those who leave messages asking about her. It takes 30 minutes to an hour each night when I get home to talk to everyone...all this after I have worked all day. I do make a point to go to the gym and my dance lessons just to get out of the house and focus on something else...something I have encouraged my sister to do but she hasn't yet...pray for her. She's wiped out.

Sidenotes: 1) Mom told us yesterday that she had gotten up during the night and crying and took her clothes off. The day nurse didn't know about it so we thought she had a really vivid dream. My sister asked the night nurse about it and she said it was true. 2) Mom is replacing the words she cannot remember w/ food. She told my sister she needed more milk on her the other night...meaning she wanted another blanket...which was white like milk...3) Mom only has two speeds: stop and go. Yesterday the nurses were helping her get to the restroom using her walker. She walked faster than they were expecting and the nurse said "Slow down, Speed Racer." I thought it was cute...