Monday, April 4, 2011

Change of Plans

It turns out that mom will not be returning to Washington in the near future.  Instead, she will be temporarily living in Utah until she is able to eat and drink and have her abdominal tubes removed.  The reason for this is that every surgeon in Washington who is accepted by her insurance has rejected taking mom on as a patient because of her serious complications.  So after that disappointment, we spent days calling and, eventually, pleading with surgeons in the states of Idaho, Texas, and Arizona (states where Wendy's children live) but day after day, all we got were "No's."  Finally, my dad called surgeons in Utah (where his sister lives) and found a surgeon in Salt Lake City who agreed to take her on as a patient and take over her care.  At this point, we  are planning on mom being released from the hospital in Vegas early Thursday morning and  flying on a Southwest airlines flight to Salt Lake City where my dad will be waiting to pick her up and take her directly to her new surgeon at 2:30 in the afternoon.  We still have to work out how she is going to get nutrition, and travel with the PICC line and TPN, etc.  Those are the phone calls that I will be making tomorrow.  Aside from all the stress of the above, mom is doing very well.  Her vital signs and labs are within acceptable ranges.  She had another blood transfusion a few days ago and she is getting herself up and walking by herself in the hospital hallways, holding onto her rolling IV holder.  She has been all alone at the Vegas hospital for the past 6 days and we wish we could still be there with her.  Most of all, we just want to get her to a bariatric surgeon who can look at her CT Scans, and tell us if she is healing properly on her own, or if she will need another surgery or other intervention to repair whatever damage has been done.  Thank you all for your prayers and cards and notes for my mom.  We truly felt miracles occurring all around us while we were there with her and I want to personally thank everyone for the prayers you prayed in my mom's behalf.  We felt the power of them and we appreciate them so much!

2 comments:

  1. I am so relieved you've found a new doctor. I was planning a trip to Vegas, but now we will have a large crowd in Utah who want to help.

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  2. Garth & I will be in Utah the 20th of April, can you let us know where she will be so we can visit her, I've lost her cell phone number, or I would have called her myself. We're so thankful that things are headed in the right direction. We pray for her daily, and I put her name on the Temple roll each week I go, please tell her we love her and hope to see her soon.
    Kristi C

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