So sadly, Mom doesn't look quite so cool, collected, and stylish wearing her version of this collar. Then again, this lady didn't just go through 7 hours of surgery hacking out bone and tissue and then putting in metal scaffolding in both front and back. So there. :-)The good news is that Mom has moved from ICU to a regular room on the neurosurgery/orthopedic floor. She's sitting up for periods of time and doing a lot of maneuvering on her own and is eating soup/jello/pudding. So that's all good.
BUT....she's in great discomfort, not least because this brace won't let her get comfortable and presses against her sore neck and back whenever she tries to recline. And the beds here are significantly harder than the ICU beds (so thank you so much for all the offers to bring her foam pad up here. It's going to make a huge difference) She's also getting intermittent screaming nerve pain down her arm and having trouble swallowing due to a swelling in her throat.
Last night Jon and I had gone home after spending some time in the ICU getting mom settled. about an hour or so later we got a call from her nurse. She was having a bad reaction to the narcotics and was having bug hallucinations and an anxiety attack similar to when she was on IL-2. By the time I got back there they had gotten the medications figured out and she was back to her old analytic and logical self. I stuck around past midnight to keep an eye on her just to be sure.
We've been spending most of the afternoon thinking through strategies for pain management, for trying to position herself more comfortably, and for finding some way to keep occupied/distracted/entertained since she can't really hold anything/look up at screens, etc.
So continue to send your healing energy this way....I have a feeling tomorrow may be the worst and then things will start to get better. But meanwhile, Mom continues to amaze her doctors and nurses by her ability to spring back.
More tomorrow....
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