The nurses couldn’t believe that I’d had surgery only the day before when he was admitted. Admittedly I didn’t ever have much pain. Or maybe I just don’t feel it.
Freya – one of my roommates in Lawrence.
Normally I like to be at the hospital when the doctors make rounds, but I knew this surgeon usually did that very early in the mornings. I also didn’t want to make Roderick, or his girlfriend get up too early since Roderick works until 1:00 am. So, I think we left for the hospital at about 9:30 am.
They were planning on running tests, so Mike hadn’t been started on his TPN (IV nutrition) yet and they weren’t allowing him to eat anything.
The kids stayed and visited for awhile then went back to Lawrence. I did what I normally do and worked on things in his hospital room or slept.
It was a little disconcerting the first time I felt it. It felt like I had a fuzzy caterpillar crawling under my arm. The surgeon had told me there would likely be nerve damage where she took out the lymph nodes and I would probably lose the feeling, so this was a sensation I wasn’t expecting.
Then there was the numbness. I touched the back of my arm and I couldn’t feel it. Again, part of the nerve process but a little “unnerving” to say the least.
Finally, I had one of the nurses look at it and I called the surgeon’s nurse. She wanted me to have an ultrasound done to make sure I didn’t have a blood clot. So, I went over to radiology to wait to be worked in.
No blood clot. However, I discovered in the shower the next morning that the gel from the ultrasound had loosened the water barrier over my surgical drain site and I had water running down my arm.
Another call to the surgical nurse. Come on over to the Westwood Clinic and we’ll fix it. So off I went
That brings up driving.
I now have a greater understanding as to why they don’t want you to drive after some surgeries. One obvious reason is pain medication, but I hadn’t taken any of those. My reaction time was not as good. It’s hard to react quickly when you don’t know what movement will cause pain and what won’t. And to top it off we had Mike’s pickup instead of my Jeep so I was not as comfortable driving it.
Saturday night (the first night) I drove back to Lawrence it was cold and the roads were a little damp. Not bad, but enough to make me aware that I needed to be on my toes as far as driving.
As I said, I like to be at the hospital when the doctors do rounds. Lawrence is 40+ minutes from the hospital. I’m not used to city traffic. That means leaving before it gets light in the best of cases.
Then there was the morning that the ground was covered in snow. I probably should have waited but I sure wanted to beat any traffic. I made it without any difficulties, but I was sure glad when I got there.
After about a week in the hospital mostly to get the home TPN set up we were able to go home on Thursday.
Sometimes I feel like I’m Livin’ On A Prayer.
Onward. More complications and pathology results.
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