Wishes for Great Health in 2020 By Susan Sands

Sorry for the late post today. The past couple weeks have been--eventful. Not in the way I wanted,

unfortunately, but eventful still. My mom had spinal fusion surgery of the L4-L5 two weeks ago. She was released a few days later to my care and was doing great. In fact, she did so well she didn't qualify for the expected week at the rehab facility as we were led to believe she likely would.

The night she came home, something happened. Between going to bed and the crash from her falling that jarred me out of bed at four-thirty in the morning, she'd become incoherent, unable to use her hands, and her legs were buckling beneath her. Not the same woman who'd easily climbed the stairs after dinner. We still aren't sure what caused this.

Anyway, after another trip to the hospital and four days and nights of uncontrolled pain and mental confusion from huge doses of many and varied types of drugs and pain killers, she managed to get a bed in the best rehab facility in the metro Atlanta area. It was a rough transition from hospital to rehab due to the still-uncontrolled pain but after a couple days, her shaking and shooting nerve pains calmed down. She's finally out of the mental fog of pain meds and is now only taking non-opioid  meds for her discomfort.

The physical and occupational therapies several times a day in the state of the art facility are working wonders and Mom is now itching to go home.

It's been a long two weeks and a very weird Thanksgiving. But we are so very thankful Mom has no lasting effects from her terrible journey. MRIs showed no stroke, no fractured hip, and her surgical hardware is still intact. For a woman her age (74) who is completely independent, driving, with a busy social life, these are huge blessings.

Now we have two college students getting wisdom teeth out during Christmas break to look forward to. Wish me luck!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving this year!

Susan