A turn for the worst...

Last time I had a chance to blog, I told you that my mom was going in for a routine polyp removal.  The doctor says he has preformed this same surgery at least once a week for 20 years.  After my mom got out of her initial surgery she kept complaining of how much pain she was in.  The nurses couldn't get it under control.  Then on Friday she got a slight temp of about 99 degrees.  The nurses and doctor noticed this, but since it wasn't a huge fever, they thought it would pass.  On Sat, my mom was still in an extreme amount of pain.  Although the doctor just thought that it was because they took out her epidural, and she was just taking pain meds by mouth.  She still had a slight fever, now at 100 degrees, but the doctor thought she might be able to go home on Sun.  Well Sunday comes, and her fever is still at 100 degrees.  The doctor is getting a little worried, because she got the chills and sweats really bad.  He ordered a CAT scan to see if she had a "leak" at the splice in her colon.  When the results came back, he couldn't see any leakage.  All of her tests came back normal, so he just couldn't figure out what the deal was.  He did say, if her fever went up at all, he was going to take her into surgery again, and see for his own eyes if there was a leak at the splice.  When I left to go home her temp went down to 99 again.  So I felt good about leaving to go home an shower and spend time with Jack and Vic.  Immediately after getting out of the shower, I get a call from Cathie, "mom's temp just spiked at 103 and they are rushing her into an emergency surgery!!"  So I book it to the hospital with wet hair, and just some clothes I found on the floor.  My dad, gpa, gma, uncle, and Cathie were all there, along with my mom's good friend Shannon.  We were all in pretty bad shape.  I guess right before this surgery, my mom was in so much pain she was crumpled on the hospital bed barely breathing.  We all just sat there and cried for two hours.  The doctor came out, and told us that he did find a leak.  According to him, during the first surgery, her colon got nicked, causing a hole.  This entire time, all the gunk and feces that is in your colon was poisoning my mom's blood.  She turned septic.  Now, if you have anyone in your family that is a medic, you know the word "septic" is one of the worst words you can hear.  The doctor then proceeded to tell us that he irrigated her intestines and cleaned as much of the infection as he could, along with taking out the portion of colon that was infected.  Now my mom has two splices in her colon.  He had to giver her a colostomy bag, because her colon is so raw at this point.  He kept saying that she was going to be ok, but then next couple days were going to be really bad.  She is really, really sick, and it will take time to get all the poison out of her system.  If my mom hadn't gotten this emergency surgery, she would have been dead by morning. 
Now even though the doctor prepared us that my mom was going to look really sick, he couldn't prepare us for what she really looked like.  She was up in the ICU with about 10 tubes coming out of her.  She was on a breathing machine, and about 5 antibiotics.  We all broke down when we saw here.  I think this will haunt me forever.  I honestly don't think anyone slept Sunday night.  Her life was so frail at the moment, and it was in God's hands.  I was able to be there first thing in the morning, and just sat there holding her hand.  She couldn't talk, and she was so drugged up that all we could do was look at eachother.  She kept squeezing my hand when I told her how much I loved her.  On Tues, my brother and his fiance flew out to be with us.  When we told my mom that they were coming, she just got tears in her eyes.  I think it meant so much to her that they came to be with her through this.   That same day, the doctor took out her breathing tube, saying she was doing well with breathing on her own.  I think this is what made the world of difference.  Her throat was really raw, but she was able to talk in a very hoarse whisper.  Tues was the first day we were all able to take a breath of relief.  She was going to be ok.  Now today, she is even better.  She is still in the ICU, and to anyone else, looks really, really bad.  But to us that have watched her the last few days, she looks so much better.  The physical therapist was able to get her up and walking a little.  She got dizzy really fast, but at least she was able to stand.  They think that she will be able to move out of the ICU tomorrow.  We are all crossing our fingers. 
Thank you to everyone that has kept my mom and our family in your thoughts and prayers.  This infection could have easily taken her life, but God had different plans for her.  Our family will be grateful forever.  Also, a big thank you to Vic's mom and Shannon who have been helping with Jack and Jaidyn, so Cathie and I can spend all our time taking care of our mom.  Another big thanks goes to my family in MN and my grandparents here, who immediately purchased tickets for Chad and Krista to fly out here.  I will keep everyone posted on the progress she is making, and I truely  believe the worst is behind us.  Now it is just getting the last of the infection out, and recovering.