Finding a room

I waited for a long time Wednesday, talking with Mom's friend Ruth and Penny again on the fun. A new church member and friend of Mom, Debbie, who Penny knows as the then-wife of Penny's lawyer boss, stopped by to visit. At some point, Yvonne, a nurse in Recovery, came by to update me. Mom had been ready to leave Recovery for a couple of hours but they hospital was too full and they couldn't yet find her a clean, empty room. I had been e-mailing with my work and finished enough of a draft of my Permanent committee review survey narrative summary to send it to the client. Then I went to eat - really, the first time all day - and went outside for a second, then traipsed up to the sixth floor, where the nurses guessed who I was and directed me to Room 603. There Mom had been for just a few minutes. She was awake, if tired and groggy. She had been very afraid of the pain after surgery, but she said the nerve cap - which she hadn't heard about until mid-morning, was doing a good job - she had almost no pain. Later in the evening, her IV hurt her hand for a moment and when the device that will move her left leg up and down was assembled -for the first hour, just to bend her knee, so it was just stationary - that hurt a bit. They will take that cap out probably Friday. Anna, Jennifer, Fannie, and Rosanne worked on Mom, who was somewhat quit to ask for help. Mom asked me to gather some additional items from home. She was very thirsty but not very hungry (though a little bit of juice and crackers perked her up a little - she had not eaten since the night before), but she had trouble reaching items and we even had trouble with the phone. Physical therapy today will probably just be getting her up to walk. She has a catheter in, but I'm sure they'll still get her to go to the bathroom. I felt bad not staying all night - which I could have done in a recliner - but I wanted to sleep better and had a couple of things I wanted to do. Obviously, if I'd gotten more sleep - preferably, lots more sleep - the nights before - that would have helped - but working at work, preparing for Vincent and me to leave/cleaning the house, and blogging prevented that. Before I left the "extern" student nurse (FSU has a nursing school) did rearrange things so Mom could reach a couple of things. Mom admitted she had been scared before. I expect today Penny will call and Dr. Fahey and Emory, among others, might visit. I need to get up there quickly. Best wishes walking today, Mom! I'll be there soon.