A Scary Time for Mum
18th November 2024 10st March 2025
Ok, so…this post is not a fun post, nor is it centred on travel. But this blog is primarily to keep a record of everything that happens while Peter & I are travelling, and as such, must be recorded.
My mum was admitted into hospital on the 28th of November 2024, and so began a very scary time for us all. We didn’t get her home until the 22nd of January 2025. But…get her home we did and we’re so very grateful for that.
During November Peter, mum and I had a series of medical appointments, thirteen in total, but nothing too serious. Then on the 28th Peter and I took the kayaks out, we were enjoying a lovely day on the water when we got a call from mum’s village, asking us to come home because mum couldn’t walk.
In short, this is what happened. Mum had a narrowing of her spinal column, caused by age, wear and tear and calcification of the spine. That resulted in paralysis in mum’s legs, mainly her right one.
Luckily for us, mum’s overall health is excellent, and it was determined that she was a good candidate for an operation, though there was no guarantee that the op would reverse her paralysis.
Spoiler alert! It did.
Mum’s journey started with twelve days in Port Macquarie Base hospital. Side note: We were supposed to have gone to Kevin and Gabriela’s for an early Christmas celebration with all the family, from the 6th – 9th December, but for obvious reasons, we couldn’t make it. However, Kevin, Annalise & her partner Lauren (from Sydney) and Nick & his partner Maddie (from Melbourne) paid mum a surprise visit on their way home. She was blown away.
After her twelve days in Port, mum flew south to John Hunter hospital (Newcastle). There she would have her operation, a Laminoplasty. We drove down and were able to stay on the hospital campus, basic but oh so convenient.
In layman’s terms, a Laminoplasty increases the space within the spinal canal. It does this by cutting completely through one side of the lamina breaking it free from the spine, and part way through the opposite side creating a hinge on the lamina. A bit like a drawbridge. Metal hardware is then attached to keep the drawbridge open (like wedging a door open with a stick), removing the pressure from the spinal column. Mum needed hinges on C4,5 & 6 (neck).
Mum spent a total of seventeen days in John Hunter, mostly waiting. She had four scheduled operation dates, where she was prepped and ready to go, each one cancelled at the eleventh hour. It was utterly devastating for her. But she was in a public hospital and emergencies had to come first. In the meantime, she was very well looked after. Her operation finally went ahead on the 23rd of December.
We celebrated our “Little Christmas” on Christmas day two days later. How’s that for recovery? They breed ’em tough where we come from.
On Boxing Day, mum was flown back to Port Macquarie where she stayed for a further twelve days and where her journey to recovery began.
But wait there’s more. Mum was then transferred from Port to Wauchope, a small country hospital twenty minutes west of Port, for seventeen days of rehab. Fantastic staff, and well worth the extra time away from home. They got her back on her feet and well on her way to recovery.
All in all, mum spent a total of fifty-eight days of incarceration, whoops I meant hospitalization, and by the end of it all, she was well and truly ready to come home.
I have to say, mum coped with it all extremely well. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard for her, or that she didn’t have any bad days, because she did. But most of all she hated all the waiting and planned many escape attempts. When they failed, she pleaded to anyone who came near her bed, be they doctors, nurses, lunch ladies or cleaners, “Can I go home now?” All to no avail.
For her age, (88) and for what she went through, and how well she came out at the other end I have to say we are extremely proud of how she coped. Throughout it all, she was rarely without a smile.
It was a huge relief when mum finally made it home, able to walk with the aid of a four-wheel walker. A tiring time for sure and what a relief to be in her own bed again.
We weren’t able to celebrate Christmas properly in hospital, so we rescheduled it to the 25th January. I think it is safe to say, the day was a success – if a month late.
Welcome home mum.
And that brings us to the beginning of March. Mum is almost match fit and Peter and I are chomping at the bit to get back on the road. We will, in fact, be heading off on the 10th, weather permitting, staying close to Port in case we’re needed but trying to get back in the mode of our nomadic life style.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
You just do not know what is in store.
Love to you all. Your Mum is AMAZING
She is indeed Lorna. She is almost back to her old self again.
Wow! Thanks very much for the account of your Mum’s journey back to health. It must have been a worrying time for all of you but those boosts like the visits from family were great!