Surgery D-Day +4

This is one happy camper tonight. Gene is coming closer to being the husband I know again.

When I walked into his room this morning I could tell he was better. Hie eye weren't as groggy and his speech was in good sentence form.

I asked him how he slept. He said he had a nightmare. He was shouting out and when the nurses, whose station is one room from his room, came in  he didn't know where he was and thought someone was going to kill him.

When they finally got him where he was lucid, they told him they think he had too much pain meds yesterday. I think so too because as I red up on the pain meds he is taking (hydromorphone) itching, agitation, nightmares were listed as reactions. They also named dry mouth but he has that because he is still NPO . . nothing by mouth. He s sure working those sponges out so he is getting water into his mouth that way.

Once this afternoon I saw him put a piece of ice in his mouth and told him to get it out before I narced on him. He spit it out. But I am sure the taste of the ice was like a breath of fresh air.

His physical therapist was in again this morning. She took him for a short walk to the stairwell and let him try walking up and down 5 steps (we have 5 steps leading to our front porch.) He needs to b e able to do this before he goes home. She was quite pleased with his walking AND with hi moving up and down the steps. 

I had to leave for my own 3 month doctor checkup. When I got back he wasn't in his room. They had taken him out to get a PICC line inserted. So now he will be getting a lot more that just saline and glucose (or whatever "ose" he is getting.)  I am hoping this will lead to some liquids tomorrow and, maybe, some real food . . . I know it will be all soft, but I know I don't want to take him home with anything in his veins that I need to work with. I know I will be able to, but it jut scares me now.

Pancreatic seepage is still occurring. It is a lot lighter than yesterday, and till seems like less. If you are saying any prayer for us, please ask that this pancreatic duct be sealed to stop the leakage. Again, that was the one thing that can really cause problems with this surgery.

Dr Kukar came in when Gene was getting the PICC line inserted. He said he is on call this weekend so he will be in to see Gene. I HAVE to remember to ask him about the time frame for adding water for Gene to drink to his routine and when will food be started. To go with this, will we meet with a nutritionist to get us started on what, how often and how much will he be eating.

 More tomorrow. Thank you for your comments. It really helps me out. 

Oh, I know. Today my doctor asked me how I was handling everything. I told him I have a good support system here and over the phone from home. He was glad to hear that . . and I am glad I have it for my own mental well being.