Tears of joy....

My sister called me this morning from Italy. She had to leave the country to deliver a paper at a medical meeting in Genoa. The doctor who did the valve replacement this morning on mom, called her as soon as he was done and she in turn first called Joan, our younger sister who was in the waiting room of the cath unit just a couple of 100 feet from Mom, to give her the news and then she called me.

I've just gotten to work and opened my phone to see a picture of mom from Joan, awake in the CCU and smiling.

My tears are flowing freely now. Everything is going to be OK.


Say AMEN!

Relieved....

Mom went to the OR/Cath lab at 6:45 am edt which was 3:45 my time. By the time I was getting to the office she was in the CCU recovering. An hour & a half ago my sister put her on the phone with me. My angst, my stress level have both plummeted.

I can breathe again.

As much as I know the vast majority of these TAVR procedures go off without a hitch, I have been terrified of complications, fearful that Tuesday might be the last time I ever saw her alive. I feel as though I can finally relax without waiting for the next shoe to fall.

Mom is alive and well, a new aortic valve in place, and just maybe I will go to sleep tonight and actually sleep through the night peacefully.