Coming home from the hospital...

She's finally home! After a grueling six days spent in the Newport Beach Hoag Memorial Hospital, Linda is finally home. Although the room service and food was delightful during her stay in the five star hospital (often resembling a five star resort), she is more than happy to be home with her family (including her faithful dog and birds).
The surgery itself had some very serious complications (or what her anaesthesiologist later called an "oh shit moment") that led to an extended stay, and ultimately an extended recovery. For family and friends, who initially remained calm about the surgery by reminding ourselves it was seemingly "routine" and "simple," it was impossible to grasp that the surgery could take more than the couple of hours it was supposed to last. But as my dad, brother, Sherry, and Melissa waited in the "surgery lounge" with nail-biting anticipation for the nine and a half hours her surgery took, an unmistakable fear began to take hold of all of us. The initial plan for a small incision for which the robotics would patch the hole went awry, as her carotid artery would not allow the hook ups to go through. Because of this, a larger incision running along her right side was made to allow the robotics to maneuver. With this, the surgeons were successful, but she began to have some serious internal bleeding somewhere around her neck that the surgeons could not find through the side incision. In order to locate the bleeding and stop it as quickly as possible, they had no other option but to open her chest up. In doing so, the bleeding was stopped (thank goodness!!!) and she received a blood transfusion (a whopping 9 units of blood!) to make up for what she had lost. Because of the intensity of the surgery, she spent 3 days in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit. She now has 10 incisions, 3 large and 7 small, (not what was expected, as her midsection looks as if Jaws got to her). And as for the hole in her heart, it was not nearly as small as they had expected. When the hole was first discovered, she was told it was about an inch big; during the surgery, however, they discovered it was three quarters the size of the septum. The doctors believe this could be attributed to her recent bout with bronchitis. However, she was an extremely impressive patient for her Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit nurses, Dede and York (who were beyond wonderful and will forever be remembered by Linda and her family and friends), as she made swift and quite vast improvements every single day due to her great state of health prior to surgery!
A massive thank you from our family to Melissa and Sherry for being there with and for the family every single step of the way. Along with a "merci beaucoups" to Michael Koller-Nielson and Kevin Sullivan for donating blood, which she ended up needing every drop of. And another huge thanks to Nancy for spending time with my mom and for helping put my mind at ease while I worked.
It meant so much to my mom and to our family to have had so many visitors during her stay in the hospital, including Melissa, Michael, Sherry, Rebecca, Paula, Peggy Sue, Natalie, Melanie, Diane, Lee, Nancy, Mike, and Jamie. Your love and support means more to us than I can possibly put into words. Thank you all.
And the flowers...
Thank you to Jerry Lehman, Melanie, Nancy, Sherry, Christopher, Becky and her mother, Lee, and Stanley CSS Corporate Office, West, Fremont, St. Louis, Santa Ana, and Portland. And thank you to Lee, Melanie, and Paula for the goody bags, and a thank you to Peggy Sue for the fabulous handmade bowl!