Surgery Day 4-5

Overall the last couple of days went pretty well. On Thursday night in the middle of the night (around 3am), Steve randomly threw up. He didnt have anything in him, so it was a whole lot of dry heaving. That caused him a lot of pain and he was unable to go right back to sleep. During that time he mentioned that his back was hurting also. I looked at his back and he had a huge egg shaped, swollen area where his epidural was. We showed the nurse and she called the pain team in and they said that they would watch it. So, over the last couple of days it has went down and we are hoping it will keep going down so they dont have to go in and drain it.

Steve was laughing at something on TV and was trying so hard to laugh that it was making him (and me!!) laugh even harder!!!

Friday, Steve continued to do his laps around the nurses station. We also attempted our "date night" on the 24th floor observation deck. When we got there it was closed though. Bummer! Oh well,we got a good walk out of it. Steve had his catheter removed on Friday. The doctor said that he would start him on a regular diet on Saturday. We had a really horrible night of sleep Friday night. Literally every hour someone was in for something. It was so very annoying. I can't wait to get home and sleep in my bed and sleep through the night!!

Heading up to the observation deck on the 24th floor

Bummed that the deck was already closed.

This morning (Saturday), Steve started his regular diet. He has to start slow considering he had major surgery and he hasnt had any solid food since Sunday night....SIX DAYS of no food! Craziness! He had a couple bites of a dry pancake and a couple of bites of yogurt and some green tea. For lunch he had some chicken noodle soup and a couple of bites of tapioca pudding and green tea. And for dinner he had hummus, a roll and a couple of bites of mashed potatoes and gravy and some green tea. He tolerated the food well and hasn't had any more nausea or vomiting episodes. This afternoon they switched him from IV meds to pain pills. This is the first step in getting home. He can't go home with an IV! So, now he is not connected to any IV's, fluids, etc. He got his first dose of pain pills around 4:00 pm. He did well on those for pain, but he also still had some of the IV meds in him. At 8:00 it was time for the pain pills again. We walked to the observation deck for "date night" and he was in a lot of pain. He broke out in a sweat and started turning pale he was in so much pain. He still has an IV in (it's just not connected to anything) in case the pills weren't enough they could give him some extra meds through the IV. He didnt want to get any extra meds through the IV because he is ready to go home and was afraid that this would hold him back. The nurse walked in and could see the pain he was in. I told her why he didn't want the IV meds and she assured him that getting some extra doses of pain meds through the IV during the transition period would not hold him back. So, he got the extra dose in the IV and is now feeling much better. For a little TMI-he also had a bowel movement today. That is another big "goal" before you can get home. Apparently everything inside kind of "goes to sleep" during surgery and they have to make sure everything "wakes up" before you can go home. When we saw the doctor this afternoon he said that we could possibly go home tomorrow evening and if not, then most likely for sure on Monday.