Pioneer Man's Blog: Mouse Family

It was a family of mice that came into the hospital one day. They needed food and an operation. It was a cold and bitter winter day. They came to get out of the cold, plus one of them needed a small hip operation. They came in the early morning hours of a Tuesday morning. The second oldest of the 5 needed their left hip replaced.

The mouse family had been waiting a year and a half for this. They went to prep and the second youngest and the one needing a hip went into get more prep done and wait. The other three, all males, waited in a waiting area. An hour later the four went to scavenge for food.

While they sat to eat what they found, the got called to all go to the operating floor. At that point they bagged their food and followed up to the OR. Up there they said their goodbyes. They separated from their family member for the next two and a half hours.

They scavenged around the OR floor, seeing if their was any other food and decided to go back down and eat their earlier find. The family of four now sat around eating their food, talking about what the mouse doctor and mouse nurse said. The doctor was concerned about a chance of infection, but the family wasn't worried. After eating they went back to the waiting room to sit again.

At this point the family sat around and played some card games. Got some coffee for the oldest of them and played UNO and Sorry Revenge. The middle oldest and next close one in age won most of the games. They then read for awhile; waiting for the call to go see their family member.

After two and a half hours of waiting the doctor came and said all was well. The doctor mouse had tried to get a hold of them earlier but couldn't. The surgery went fine and they were getting an x-ray to see how everything went. In another half hour or more the mouse family would get to see their family member again. The doctor mouse said that the mother mouse would have to limit weight bearing to 50% for the next month until another x-ray. So the waiting continues until they can see their family member again.

Around 2:30 a phone call came saying that they could see the mouse matriarch at 3:00. So in a half hour, at 3 p.m. they could visit her in the recovery room. They visited with a friend on the way to see their family. This friend visited for a moment too. They stayed with their family member for about an hour. Then they had to go home and let the patient rest.

The next day they went about the day as best they could being down one mouse. They did okay and went to see their patient / friend mouse matriarch after supper. It was nice but they miss their friend being at home with them. They want their friend to come home, but it is too soon. The PT mouse (Physical Therapy) and the doctor mouse suggest that the grand mother can go to rehab sooner than Friday. This information was made them feel both nervous and excited. The want time to go faster, but they want it safely.

Thursday came and calls started happening that moved the grand mother from recovery to rehab. Which meant going to a new place closer to home.

Much Later.........

Rehab has been full of ups and downs. It is only twenty minutes away from their home, but there has been some issues. First the grandmother has been getting sick and throwing up and after that seemed to be getting better, the leg with the hip replacement decided not to work after three days of therapy. Then the grand mother started throwing up again. It seemed that both times it was medication or vitamins that were causing the problem.

So now that the medication or vitamins have been straightened out, the grand mother has found out that her leg was going into rebellion since it has not been lifted in over a year and a half. It has only been shuffled around instead of being lifted. So now the leg needs a little rest before it can continue therapy and start moving and lifting again. Slow and steady is the way to go for this therapy.

She has been in therapy for a little over a week and has an appointment with the doctor's office that did the surgery. Hopefully everything is going well. They will find out later when the grand mother tells how the appointment went.

All is well, the staples have been removed, therapy has been going well for the last two weeks and the grandmother can go home in a couple more weeks. The mouse family is happy that the whole ordeal is almost over.

Ever since this has started, two of the mice have been taking care of everyone else. One has done the most work in taking care of the grandfather and the youngest. The other has been doing all the transporting and a little of the cooking. It has been a big challenge for them holding down the fort while dealing with their own life. They have done it and more and it is almost over.