Even though the surgery is now over, the challenges are not yet done for Heidi and Parm.  And it turns out, mother and son both had pretty eventful nights.   It was not an easy night for anyone.  I did check on both this morning, and things are stable and very well.

When I first checked on Heidi last night in the ICU, she was doing well.  Steve said Heidi did not have a mouth tube inserted, and she was responding to sound and voices.  She nodded when Steve mentioned Parm.  Doctors actually told me later, after everyone had left, that Heidi woke up.  I took the elevator upstairs to just say hello, and sure enough, Heidi was awake and talking!  She was very very tired and hooked up to every monitor I could imagine.   Although she was not quite stable enough to be moved back to Parm’s floor, everything seemed, as the doctors reported, well ahead of schedule.

This morning, after talking to Heidi, she told me there were some hiccups late last night…  However, things were pretty calm when I walked in.  Heidi told me that her blood sugar actually spiked last night, so they put her on insulin, which they are monitoring.  Heidi also told me that her blood pressure actually dropped as well.  Another hiccup.  She didn’t really complain too much of pain, but she was still tired.  Since I wasn’t sleeping with her in ICU, I can’t really say what is her true pain level.  All I know is, she wasn’t too tired to fit in a few embarrassing stories about Parm as a kid.  She has grand plans to try to stand on her own this afternoon.  There are no pictures of Heidi right now–maybe later.  She’s keeping a low profile until I get her a proper photo shoot.

With Parm, I know a little bit more of what he went through.  He had a hard night.  Things were okay for awhile past midnight, but he started feeling pain around 1:30 or 2 a.m.  His body, his abdomen muscles, were seizing.  A cramp like sensation.  I have never really seen Parm in pain, but it was very hard for me to watch.  Nurses came in multiple times during the night to adjust his medication and his bed position.  It was really hours later until he felt more ease and comfort.  I felt helpless; I couldn’t do much.  I ended up falling asleep, watching him.  When I did wake at 4 a.m., he had hot packs that helped him feel better and drugs were helping to control what he was feeling.  Turns out, he had a fever in the night too.  He didn’t get much rest at all.  Doctors came in later and said nothing sounded out of the ordinary.

A few hours later, Parm insisted he wanted to stand up.

Needed to stand up.  His nurse, Thien, did give Parm a look of, “I don’t think so…”  Especially since Parm went through so much in the night.  I’m not sure if Parm saw it, but Parm was determined to give Thien the credit.  Thien brought in another guy to help shift Parm about the bed.  How fast Parm sat up and stood up definitely made me uneasy, but that feeling soon passed.   He was up!  My Parm was standing!  He looked good standing!  Parm then insisted on getting to walk around the 9th Floor.  We opened the door, and Parm pretty much just started taking off.  He did good!  He did one whole lap around the floor! Check it out! See Parm Go!

I am so relieved that the night is over.  Heidi and Parm are A-OK.  Parm had a great nurse, Thien.  Thanks Thien for getting Parm situated.