Post Surgery Day 2

I left home at 7:30 a.m. this morning to make sure I would arrive by the 8:30 end of shift change so I could be with my mom while my dad left to go sleep at my sister nicole's house. My dad ended up spending the night in the chair by my mom's bed last night (it does not recline, it is just a chair, so he has to be exhausted right now!) When I first got there my mom was trying to open her eyes and talk with me a little, but she seemed to be feeling a little sick. I asked how she was feeling and the nurse filled me in... my poor mom had gotten sick to her stomach and was feeling nauseous from the pain medicine. She was starting to come around though, but still had a few bouts of feeling sick to her stomach while I was there.
My mom was doing well enough that the nurse said she was ready for more tubes to come out, yeah! She took out her left atrial pressure line from her left wrist, next was her oxygen nasal canula and finally the bigger of the two lines going into her neck. My mom did well through all of this and soon after was ready to attempt sitting in a chair. It was a bit of a process to get all of her lines and tubes in a position that she could get up and move over to the chair, but she did it, with the help of her nurse and not too long after she had been sitting, my sister Melissa arrived. My mom started to perk up a little as she sat - she wasted no time letting us know that she would like to have her neck and shoulders rubbed :) She ended up sitting for about an hour and a half before she told us she was ready to lay back down.
I stayed until about 12:30 p.m. but had to leave to get home for Whitney's 9 month check up with the pediatrician this afternoon. That appointment went very well, Whitney is doing very well with her growth and weight gain. We discussed concerns about her hearing (luckily, we have an appointment coming up this Monday, the 8th, with the ENT), her breathing (we go to the cardiologist again in July, but her breathing still just isn't quite right and her chest is still retracting as she breathes, but we aren't sure what more at this point to do about this. hopefully it has something to do with the tracheomalacia and laryngomalacia that should resolve itself as she gets bigger and stronger).
I called my brother on my way home from the pediatrician's office to see how things were going (around 4:30 p.m.) and he said that he and my dad were outside of the room because they were removing her chest drainage tube, yeah!!! This is a big deal... I think she had as many things removed within 24 hours post-op. as Whitney had removed in 4 days in the ICU! We are so thankful that my mom was in good health going into this surgery, with the exception of the very bad condition of her aortic valve and surrounding aortic tissue. I am hopeful that they will be able to move her from ICU to a regular room sometime tomorrow. I will have to call my Dad tonight to see if there are any updates since late this afternoon - but this is pretty much the summary for the day. Overall - a good Day 2 :)

Thank you for your continued prayers!!!