Doctors notes

I met with doctor today. This is how he described the injury in layman's terms. All but one of the muscles in the right arm were absent (or gone) before he ever looked at the arm. Fortunately the tendons were cut and not stretched. He was able to connect the tendons from her fingers to the one remaining muscle that runs up her arm from her thumb. The nerve to the thumb has been contused (mashed) however it is possible for it to heal. She will not likely be able to move her fingers individually but will be able to use the hand to grasp things if the results of the surgery go as expected. She will need therapy for 12 weeks. She will have surgery for skin grafts next Tuesday at that time they will remove the wound vac and close the wounds to the right arm. He said the damage was extremely bad but felt confident in his work.

I am going to email him tomorrow and ask him to send me an email with his word for word description and hopefully he will have a minute to get that email to me and I can share it with you.

Mom has a great attitude, unbelievable really. I notice she needs her pain meds about every 3 1/2 to 4 hours, she starts to get frustrated and starts hurting. She doesn't take medicine so she doesn't think about asking for something to relieve the pain so I am making sure they keep her comfortable. She has been confused more often today but it's normal especially for more senior patients to experience some disorientation.

She doesn't want me to leave her alone because she got confused when I did earlier. Here's a very strange twist on the entire situation. Zack's Dad was admitted to ICU this afternoon two floors up from Mom. He has a broken back and broken pelvis. He wasn't expecting Zack to be in town so when he saw Zack walk in the room he asked one of his ex-wives "How bad off am I". He'll be out of the hospital in 3 or 4 days but won't be able to drive for 3 weeks I guess. Zack is spending time with his brother Chris tonight and with his brother Justin tomorrow night.

Well our patient is sleeping, just like when you have a new born, you have to sleep when the patient sleeps. So good night to all. Please keep your prayer vigils strong. Pray that Mom will be so miraculously healed that it will baffle the doctors. God can do that!

love,
Katie