John here- I spent several hours with Mom yesterday, Friday the 31st.
Her surgery went well. She now has a screw in one of her vertebrae. This is a fairly routine procedure and the doctors were pleased with how it went, and how her bones looked overall. It will take several weeks to heal, however, so she has a neck brace on and will probably have it for the next 4 to 6 weeks.
Additionally, she has a substantial lump above her left eye, known as a hematoma. It looks really bad if you happen to see her, and it’s uncomfortable for her, but it’s not serious and it’s going to heal on its own. (They said that it’s better to let it heal by itself because that will reduce any scarring afterwards.)
Mom was discharged from Community Memorial Hospital last night and has been moved to Oxnard Manor so she can receive physical therapy. I don’t yet know how long she will be there, but it’s basically until she can get up and about by herself; because her surgery was on her neck, her stability and strength will take a little while to return. However, her first sessions of PT went well.
She will likely be using a walker when she gets home for a bit, and from there we strongly suspect she will use a cane to help with her stability.
At this point, it doesn’t seem that this injury will leave any long-term impact, and all signs indicate that Mom will make a full and (relatively) quick recovery. As with the cane, however, she’ll need to modify some habits to protect against future falls.
I think that’s all for now. Please subscribe to these posts to get future updates in your email and, as always, contact John if you have further questions. Thank you all.