My mom has to get surgery (warning, this is gross)

Thanksgiving should be a happy time for families, but for my family, this week has been hell. My mom had been feeling a little sick at the end of last week and over the weekend, but then suddenly she went to lift a box at work Monday and felt something "fall out" of her. My aunt wound up driving her to the next big town (which is about 90 miles away) to take her to a decent emergency room, and my mom spent all Monday night and most of Tuesday in the ER.

It turns out that my mom had a "fourth-degree prolapsed uterus," meaning that her entire uterus fell out of her vagina and was just hanging there. She described it as the size of a baby's head. (So gross)

The first ER doctor who looked at her said "Oh dear" when he first took a look. Such a man thing to do... (no offense to the men, but most men -- even doctors -- react badly to women problems).

They ran all sorts of blood/urine tests and did a CT scan. Apparently she had basically no iron or potassium in her body. Her white blood cell count was so low that it was really scary. She got a urinary tract infection and the infection had spread to her kidneys. It was looking like the ER wanted to do an emergency hysterectomy.


About 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, she finally got looked at by a decent gynecologist. That doctor started looking at the CT scan and noticed that there is a major growth inside that shouldn't be there either. The doctor decided to wait three weeks and do a full hysterectomy. In the meantime, she's not supposed to work or lift anything over a few pounds. She's got this device inside her holding the uterus inside, and she's supposed to stay off her feet as much as possible so she doesn't risk making the device pop out. She has to take the device out twice a week to clean it and then put it back in.


Since she wasn't supposed to do much, she decided it would be best not to cook a Thanksgiving dinner. I couldn't be there anyway because I had to work, but she had planned to cook for her and my brother. She ended up getting two prepared meals from the town's grocery store. It broke her heart not to cook the meal. Luckily I'm going up there Monday for my brother's birthday, and I am going to try cooking a mini-Thanksgiving dinner for us. I've never done it alone, but I think for the most part I can handle it. I may have to ask her a few questions here and there.


It looks like her surgery will end up being on a day I can't be there ... once again I can't be there when she needs me... I have to testify in my exhusband's criminal trial then and have to be here no matter what.