Sunday, September 06, 2009

Things don't always go as planned


I'm currently in Detroit because my mother has surgery scheduled. Back in late July she fell and broke her humerus bone high up in her left arm - almost to the shoulder(she's left handed.) Surgery was performed to insert 4 pins. Unfortunately the surgery was not successful and they are going to go back in and try to insert screws and a plate. They will know during that surgery whether the screws are successful. If they are not, they will go ahead and do a partial shoulder replacement.

Surgery was originally scheduled for Friday morning. During the preop tests they discovered her blood sodium levels were too low and her potassium levels too high. Both can cause heart arrhythmia issues which is not something you want during surgery. She was admitted to a ward on Friday in order to stabilize her levels which takes a couple of days. It now looks like surgery will take place on Tuesday.

It has been a long haul for an 85 year old woman and there is still a great deal ahead of her. She is getting frustrated so we're hoping that everything goes off without a hitch on Tuesday and she can start on the road to recovery.

1 comment:

Del said...

I'm so sorry things are dragging out like this - not easy for anyone. I'm still sending good thoughts for your mother's recovery. Love, Del