Talk About a Day of Highs and Lows

Thank you Coco, for that informative comment on my part. Since I was not able to blog today, I asked Coco to fill everyone in on Mom's progress. She went in to surgery just as I was filing in to my graduation ceremony. I arrived with a beautiful corsage on one wrist from Tante Coco, a charm bracelet from my dear late Aunt Wendy on the other, and my mom in my heart. And of course, Tom and Coco in the audience to cheer me on.

After the ceremony was over, I was so relieved to get a message that Mom had done just fine and was in recovery. Her friends Lissa and Susan were waiting for her to come up to the floor, and Paul was en route to the hospital.

The good news is that her kidney continues to produce and drain some urine, the bad news is that it is not draining all the urine it should. Mom was born with two ureters on the left side, which is not normal, but has never posed a problem. A stent was successfully placed in one ureter, but the other seemed impenetrable. Tomorrow, she will have a catheter placed in her kidney through her back, that will hopefully access the fluid accumulation directly and provide some relief. This procedure will be done in interventional radiology, so she'll be awake with just local anesthetic.

I finally got to speak with mom this evening, and she seemed discouraged and proud all at the same time. I reassured her that she missed nothing but some cheesy nursing humor, but I can empathize when she shared with me that today she thought, "Well, is this it?" This is not it, however, because based on the love and support she's received from friends and family, I know if she ever needs a transplant, she'll probably end up with THREE kidneys, and a few in the freezer, just in case. But that's no where in the near future...hopefully this catheter does the trick.

So a special thank you to Marilyn and Alan for providing mom with cozy bed linens in which to snuggle tonight, to Lissa and Susan for your hours of support and prompt updates, to Coco and Tom for representing my family like true champs, and Filomena for helping Mom pull off the grad gift of a lifetime! I was SHOCKED! For those of you out of the loop, Mom had Tom and Filomena communicate to make sure I received my long-admired diamonds by the yard necklace this evening. The necklace itself is not nearly as special as all the teamwork and thought I know went in to getting it to me.

And no Dad...I did not need to be carried off the stage in tears like I did in my kindergarten piano rehearsal, but thanks for bringing that up...again...