Mom's Contact Info

Hi All. Here's Mom's contact info while she's in the hospital. She should be up for visitors starting tomorrow. Feel free to call or drop by to see her.

Bone & Joint Hospital
1111 N Dewey Ave
Room 328
Oklahoma City, OK 73103-2609
(405) 272-9671 (Room 328)

Mom's Out of Surgery

Mom's out of surgery. The doctor said he gave her the best shoulder he could, and that it thinks the recovery will be fine. It wasn't the positive "everything went great!" kind of report, but, given the extent of Mom's injuries, there was only so much he could do.

He ran into some dead bone around the shoulder so had to do some grafting (from cadavers) to hold the prosthesis in place. He suspects the dead bone came as a result of her blood flow being cut off due to the injuries. He also said she had soft tissue and muscles in very poor condition (most likely from lack of use for 10 months). He did muscle and soft tissue repair as well.

The knee portion of the surgery was a cinch. Took only about 5 minutes to remove the wire.

Mom will be in the hospital until Thursday or Friday. She'll need to be in a sling, unable to move the shoulder at all, for 6 weeks. Yikes. Then, she'll begin PT.

I'm planning on sending out an e-mail to ask for friends to help out with meals for her for a while. It's been hard enough for her to make her meals prior to this surgery (having to hold a cane to steady herself), but now it will be quite difficult. If you are interested in helping out in this way, please let me know and I'll add you to the e-mail.

Thanks, All, for your thoughts, prayers and support.

Know that my mind is tired and my recollection somewhat foggy. If some of my report doesn't make sense, that's why and I'll clear up any confusion later.

love,
jennifer

In Surgery...

Well, Mom is in surgery. They took her in about an hour ago. I must say seeing her wheeled off into the operating room was a bit of an ugly flashback for me. But, at least this time, she's conscious and going in for a routine procedure... not a life saving one.

I should hear something when they are mid-way through and then again when she is out of surgery. When they fix her surgery, they'll also go into her left knee and remove a wire that is working its way out. (Yes, they had wired her crushed knee back together after the wreck, using the wire like thread.)

I'll keep everyone posted as the day progresses.

Thanks for all of your support.

love,
jennifer

One last surgery

Hi Everyone. It seems like it's an appropriate time to blog again, if only for a little while.

The last few months, Mom has been recovering quite well, but, alas, there is one more surgery before she can continue her recovery. Tomorrow morning, Mom will have a full shoulder replacement of her left shoulder. The shoulder had been fractured in the wreck, but the fracture wasn't discovered until a couple months after. At that point, doctors thought it was healing well on its own, however, grueling PT and subsequent scans revealed that the shoulder is pretty much... well, f*cked. Sorry, but it is.

I am in town for a week to help mom out during/post surgery. We will be at the hospital (Bone & Joint in OKC) bright and early tomorrow - admitting at 7:00, surgery at 9:00AM.

I'll be sure to update the blog when Mom gets out of surgery. It's just the easiest and most efficient way of letting everyone know what's going on. Geoff isn't here this time to help make all the calls... and for good reason - he and Heather are expecting their first child 8/17! So, Mom has lots to look forward to and needs a new shoulder so she can play with her new little grand baby. :)

Please keep us in your thoughts, prayers, send positive energy, healing light or whatever works for you. We're all anxious. It's not fun to relive what happened last September, but we are also very ready to have the surgeries be a thing of the past, so Mom can move forward in her recovery.

Much love and appreciation.

jennifer

Brief Update

Hi everyone. I just wanted to send a little update. Clearly, we aren't updating as often anymore. I guess since Mom is home and able to respond to phone calls and e-mails, as well as to have visitors, there hasn't been as much of a need for the blog. So, if you'd like to find out what's going on with Mom, shoot her an e-mail at sherylwow3@aol.com or give her a call.

Mom is still in OT/PT two times per week and is continuing to make progress, although she still has quite a bit of work ahead of her before she's completely mobile.

We are still waiting for the preliminary hearing to be set for the woman who hit us. The date should be set at the end of March.

Thanks to all of you for following the blog. We'll post updates as we have them.

love,
jennifer

from Sheryl:

Hello from the "recovery base." I'd love to hear from friends/family now that I'm more able to answer.

Times are slowly getting better and I'm excited about fun times after this recovery. Jennifer has been an angel helping me thru a very challenging time.

Good wishes, safe travel to all.

Sheryl

Moving into the New Year

Happy New Year! I, for one, was thrilled to see 2008 come to a close!

Just a little update to let you know how everything is going...

Mom has been home since 12/23. I was in OK helping until last Friday, when I returned to Indianapolis. I'll be going back to OK 1/10 - 1/17 for another stretch.

In the meantime, mom has caregivers coming to help her with things that she can't do on her own... some meal preparation, light house-keeping, etc. She is getting stronger and stronger all the time, becoming much less dependent on the wheelchair (aka "Breezy"), using the walker instead. Soon, mom's doctors should upgrade her to outpatient status (now she's on home-health), which will allow her more freedom to go out to eat, to a movie, etc. Currently, she is still receiving PT and OT in her home a few times per week.

Mom is happy to be home with Thatcher and her birds, Perula and Romeo. She loves having visitors, so give her a call if you'd like to stop by sometime.

Here's to a much better, healthy and happy 2009!

love,
jennifer