A long road to recovery

This is day 21 that Gram has been in the hospital. I can report that she is doing much better and that all her tubes should be coming out SOON! (fingers crossed) She went in for a simple prcedure on May 11 to fix a hole in her esophagus which was causing her to feel nauseated and dizzy ALL the time. She had a difficult time eating as well. We all thought this would be a simple surgery. A few hours of surgery and a couple nights stay in the hospital. Hudson and I met my mom and Gram at the hospital the day of because her initial surgery time got pushed back from 6:30am to 10:30am. It was about a 3 1/2 hour surgery and the Dr. had told my mom everything went well. She was in recovery for almost 3 hours, which is normal. We met her up in her room when she was ready. The doctor had told my mom that an air bubble was still in her stomach and that they'd let it run it's course and see if it fixed itself. If not, they'd have to insert a chest tube.She was still a little groggy and in pain but she knew what was going on. Then it started.......she clinched her left side, above her heart....... we all thought she was having a heart attack......... but the nurse assured us that it wasn't. All of her vitals were good she was just having excruciating pain on her left side. Gram is a tough TOUGH woman and to see her in that much pain and no one really knowing what was going on, was a little terrifying! After a few minutes and several nurses coming in and out, they decided that the air pocket had moved up into her chest and caused her left lung to compress, making it difficult for her to breathe. Thank the good Lord for pain meds. They started morphine. That helped a little but she was still in pain, you could see it in her eyes. Cody had been in the ER that evening doing clinicals and I was keeping him updated. He had a few free minutes and came up to the floor we were on, (thank goodness, becuase he calmed me down and explianed to me that everything was going to be alright and wiped my tears!)

Her recovery process has been anything but easy. With her breathing being low, oxygyn levels low as well, not being able to rest and having tens of thousands of tubes in her body, it's been a battle. But she is the strongest woman I know. Somehow, we are still unsure of how but she developed an infection close to her stomach where the doctor had made the incision. They only discovered the infection because they had scheduled a SECOND surgery to see what was going on and why she wasn't recovering the way she was supposed to. The infection was MASSIVE! The doctor told my mom, HE WAS SURPRISED SHE HAD MADE IT 24 HOURS........
Tell me that woman doesn't have gaurdian angels watching over her. The infection caused her to become SEPTIC. Her bloodstream was infected. This granted her a trip to CCU. She was put on a ventilator, somehow they added more tubes to her body. It was a waiting process..... thay caught the infection in time and pumped her body FULL of antibiotics. And she fought. And fought. And she continues to fight. She was only on the vent for a day and did great when they took it out. She breathed on her own like a CHAMP!!! She moved from CCU to a progressive care room only to find out she had fluid on her lungs and ANOTHER small infection. More antibiotics and a chest tube to drain the fluid. The fluid has been drained and the infection conquered! Once again, GLORY TO GOD!!!!!
I won't even go in to detail about her hallusinations. Very scary but they are under control. They are hoping to remove some of the tubes by this weekend and she will under go physical therapy for a while. If you have any extra prayers, please pray for this woman. She can use whatever you've got. God has bigger plans for her.
I know it.