Furlough

This past week was my furlough from work - a week off from work - yay! But, without pay - boo!  The original plan for this week was for my mom and I to work on wedding stuff (like the boutonnieres and corsages and addressing the invites). However, God had another plan.

My mom retired at the end of January and was loving it - until the second week. She started having a lot of back pain. None of us really thought much of it because my mom has had back troubles in the past and it always gets better. But, this time was different. After over a month of pain without any improvement, she finally decided to go to the doctor. She had an MRI and on March 18th we found out that she had a tumor in her back. It was very shocking for all of us, not to mention scary. We didn't know what to expect and the worst thoughts go through your head. She had an appointment with a neurosurgeon in Rochester on the 19th. The doctor originally wanted to wait to do surgery until April 7th, but my mom insisted that was too far away and something needed to be done asap as she was in so much pain. They scheduled the surgery for March 26th. 

On March 23rd, mom went to the Owatonna hospital by ambulance because she couldn't handle the pain at home anymore. They kept her there for pain management until the day before her surgery. Then, they took her by ambulance to Rochester to get her ready for surgery.

March 26th was a long day. We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 am. Mom was taken into prep at 6:30. Her surgery started at 9:10 and ended at 1:30. We didn't get to see her until about 4:00. It is really tough to see your mom in so much pain. However, the good news was that they were able to completely remove the tumor and it was benign. Mom was also able to wiggle her toes and move her legs! 

The recovery from surgery, wasn't so smooth. Mom was in quite a bit of pain from the surgery and was on a lot of pain medication. However, our family doesn't tolerate pain medication very well and a lot of complications came about. Mom ended up staying in Rochester until April 1st. 

I went to Owatonna the day she came home to help take care of her. My stepdad was there as well, but he has a bad knee, so it was a challenge for him to do everything by himself. I stayed over at my mom's house all week and it was great to see her improving a little bit each day. She's using a walker to get around, but I'm confident that won't last long! 

I'm thankful that I was able to be there to help her out. It's amazing how things work out sometimes. Now, we just need to get her all back to normal - hopefully better than before since this tumor has probably been causing her trouble for a LONG time! We only have 84 days until the wedding!!