Good Morning! 8:55AM

I just talked to Dad and he said Mom slept VERY well last night. At one point, she was able to sleep for a 4 hour block of time, which tells me her pain level is MUCH better. They just had a visit from the Plastic Surgeon's fellow, who confirmed that Mom will not be released today as planned. She still doesn't have correct lung function yet and requires oxygen. I am really glad to hear they are keeping her for another day. Every 6 hours, someone from the respiratory department comes to visit her with a little hand-held device which thumps the heck out of her back, which breaks up any fluids and inspires the lungs to work better. She LOVES this treatment and says it makes her feel much better. When she sits up, she feels like her lung capacity is greatly diminished but not enough to feel alarmed by it. As I mentioned in earlier posts, this is because of the work the doctors had to do within the chest-wall muscle. You use all of these muscles for your breathing and when they are disturbed it takes a little time for things to get back to normal. The chest X-Ray yesterday revealed some fluid and slight abnormalities, but they said all of these symptoms were not uncommon after a surgery of this type.
Mom is feeling good enough that she wants to get out of bed and take a shower today...brush her own teeth & so on, which tells me she will be back to normal very quickly. Her arm function is MUCH better than it was yesterday morning. She was able to feed herself last night a little, but does get exhausted quickly. She had me butter her bread for her because it was exhausting just sitting there.
I just called Dad, Rhonda and Larry to meet Ruby and I at the cafeteria at 9:30am for breakfast. Rhonda and Larry offered to hang out with Ruby for a little while today so I can go see Mom (Chris had to go back to work today because he had a special training event scheduled 3 months ago...Ruby and I missed him last night, but we talked on the phone first thing this morning when we woke up). I think Dad will most likely come back to our little trailer to get some sleep during that time too.
BOY is it nice to TYPE instead of text this blog update from my cell phone. I finally had a moment to unpack my laptop to post this blog, and am SO glad the hospital has wireless internet everywhere. WOO HOO!
I'll let you know how the day goes!
:)