My mother has a carotid endarterectomy
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
Los Angeles, California. My 91 year old mother found out that both of her carotid arteries were 80% blocked with plaque. This is pretty common for 91 year olds and since it can lead to a stroke they decided to do a carotid endarterectomy.
The surgery went well and she was giving orders and complaining as soon as she woke up in recovery. Amazingly, she was released the following morning and we’re home now.
This isn’t going to turn her into Einstein but it should help prevent a stroke.
Hospitals can be quite boring, especially when the patient you are visiting falls asleep. The hospital’s wifi system wasn’t working quite yet and there are only so many DVDs I can watch on my computer without my eyeballs falling out of my head. I couldn’t walk around the hospital with a camera, modern hospitals have patient privacy issues (good thing). I found myself counting drops in my mother’s IV and decided to attempt a shot or two before the nurse returned and told me to put camera away.
Richard, that’s great to hear that Frances is doing well and is back home now. She’s very hearty, and I’m sure your relieved that the procedure went smoothly. I trust she’s recovering well, enjoying giving you some orders!
Gary, thanks for the good wishes. She’s fine although it looks like this is going to be the beginning of her transition to not driving which is going to add a layer of complexity to her life and maybe mine. ugh.
Richard, how’s she doing now? And how are you doing? I hope all’s going fine for both of you, after this scary,but necessary medical procedure.
She’s doing fine Gary, thanks for asking. We visited the Bowers Museum in Orange County today and saw an amazing exhibit of Ansel Adams photographs, about as good an exhibit as I’ve ever seen. Close to 100 large prints, all spectacular and beautifully hung. All the classics and a few I’d not seen in print form. Anyway, she enjoyed it as did I.