Sands, did they just resection your mom's colon, or remove it? My DMIL had colostomy about 6 years ago, and has been on a bag ever since. Will your mom?

Glad to hear she's doing better!

Yes, I thought it was just a colon resection too. I have no experience with colostomy bags, but I am sure someone here will be able to give you some great advice!

So glad she is recovering so quickly! And how sweet of you/her to give the nurses a little gift! That's really special!

Linda

It was a resection but she's going to have to do the bag for a few weeks - she had severe internal scar tissue from other abdominal surgeries [her 1st at 17] that they removed so they are letting her insides reshift and settle before they rehook up the plumbing.

Thanks Linda, I swear those nurses deserve alot more than lotions and bodywash they really have a tough job but every little thank you is welcome I'm sure. It's the thank yous that keep us all going, so we want to continue being the nice and/or generous people we can be, I think. :)

Glad your mom is doing well. I just want to remind you to be extremely vigilant about the handwashing routine. Nobody and that means all and any nurse or doctor should enter your moms room without sanitizing their hands at the door with those lotions or foams. NO EXCEPTIONS EVER. Not even you.
I would also spray down every surface in the whole room with Lysol disinfectant, probably better that mom is wheeled out. And spray those curtains too.. It was just in our paper about 6 weeks ago, while my mom was in hospital recuperating that those curtains that pull around the bed for privacy were found to be the source for many of those nasty superbugs etc. I did her room just in case. And no matter how many posters they have up in the hallways, the nurses station etc about the requirement that they foam their hands on entering/leaving etc a patients room I caught some of them not doing it.

Great news Sands! But 50lbs in 2 weeks... Wow! She must be weak as a kitten!

I agree with pk's advice about the hand washing.... they were really lax about that with my mom last year too, and I know they had some staph bugs around the hospital! Also double check every medication and pill that they are giving for dosage etc. I caught a medication mistake with my mother and twice they brough her shellfish to eat (once it was ground up so you couldn't tell what it was when she was on a soft diet) and she was very allergic! I think you get primo care in ICU but on the floors, it can be a little hit or miss!

I had a colon resection without a colostomy. It's a tough surgery to go through when they remove 2 feet of colon...pkguy can't be more right! Be careful about cleansing your hands and keeping everything clean. ICU is veeeery careful and I'm sure everyone that works on the floors in a hospital tries to be careful. But, now that she is moved to a surgical floor watch everything if you can.

Sometimes our elderly population takes for granted that they will be taken care of by their doctors and hospitals. Usually they are taken care of. But when it came to my Mom I was extra vigilant in making sure that all precautions were taken.

Talking about hospital cleanliness here something else that happened while mom was in there..
After her exploratory surgery they put her into a 4 person ward room. I was pretty sure she had good coverage from my dads pension plan and/or her own retired teachers pension plan. So after checking that out the next day at her house I went to the admin and asked them to move her into a private because she had the insurance to cover it.
So after she's moved into the private room I go to visit her and she's laying there on the bed telling me to look up at the ceiling and pointing to all the dust and black streaks eminating out of the ceiling a/c duct. I know that doesn't happen overnight, nor in a month. Mom was concerned because she said if that thing comes on she's going to be getting covered with all that dust. I'm thinking Legionaires disease to myself.. So I called the hospital admin and told them that if they didn't have that ceiling cleaned asap there would be a picture of me cleaning it hopefully on the front page of the local newspaper.. It was done pronto as were all the other rooms on that ward.

Sands, I don't have any good advice either, but I'm so glad to hear that your Mom's doing better and that you are close enough to help.

Hugs to your Mom, and hugs to you for being such a good daughter.

Annie

You guys always have such good advice and suggestions on how to make things better! I couldn't ask for better friends to help me keep my mom safe and healthy.

You may think I'm a great daughter but it's only because my Mom was such an outstanding mom. I have a brother and sister and they are just as vigilant as I am with her care because she always made us all feel like a million bucks. She makes us all better people and parents from her example. I know of no better person overall than my mom. She's smart, kind, loving and genuine. And not just to her kids or friends but too everyone around her. Not the norm these days. We need more of her kind. So I'm trying to be more like her, I'm just a work in progress :) as are we all.

Not hard to love someone immeasurably who always loved you unconditionally.

My dad's procedure was very similar. He had a colostomy for a couple of months and then got "re connected." To be frank, it was a long difficult recovery, and my dad is not the kind of person who tolerates being sick or slowed down in any way. He was fine until the second surgery. I think the key is to be flexible. The old you is gone, but that doesn't mean the "new you" has to be miserable if you accept it and adjust. The scar tissue and the surgery means your mom's colon just isn't going to work the way it used to. It sounds like she has a superb attitude, which will help immeasurably. The best strategy IMHO is to accept that problems happen, and deal with them, not deny them! It's your gut after all, and your gut feelings cannot be denied! My dad was on steroids for years until he realized that the cure was worse than the disease. He is fine now, he eventually adjusted in his own way. I think the thing that this kind of surgery does to you is remind you that you are a fallible human and not superman or superwoman. Recovery is as much spiritual challenge as a physical one, it seems to me.

It sure says a lot about your mom with the vigilant care and oversight she receives from you and your siblings! I agree with RR, the care (or lack of) that elders receive is one of those things that keep my up at night.

I'm so glad to hear how well she is doing