Hospital visiting tonight.

When my father had his bypass they kept him totally sedated for the first 24 hours to allow his body to recover from the trauma. However things have moved forward a long way in more than 20 years, and my mother was allowed to become conscious a few hours afterward.

We popped in to see her this evening. Medically she's doing quite well, with relatively few major issues. However she is in a great deal of pain because she MUST lay on her back, and that position has been uncomfortable for many years, plus she was laid on a hard operating table several hours, and that caused issues. It is also quite possible that this is referred pain from the surgery. Prior to the op she'd been led to believe that it should all be a pain-free experience, and that's far from the case here, as they are limited in the levels of morphine that can be given because it depresses breathing. She is bearing it with the best grace she can manage in the circumstances.

Because her breathing is a bit rocky they don't want to sedate her at this stage. They had to put a breathing tube in for the op, and it made a real mess (we could see her tongue was swollen and bruised and there was blood in her mouth and coming from her nose). A sedative might cause her to stop breathing, and another breathing tube insertion would not be good at this stage.

Finally, it would seem that they repaired a hole in the valve, rather than replaced it. Apparently it was working well when they checked under ultrasound.

Please pray that the pain will recede, that she will have a peaceful night and that she will not be distressed by all the things that she's having to undergo.