Surgery D-Day +5

Again, let me thank those of you who have left comments. They give me such POSITIVE feedback that we are doing, or have done, the right thing.

Today was a little different for me. I went to bed last night around 11:00 pm. I wasn't tired but I went to bed anyway. Tried to watch TV and nothing was interesting so I turned it off and BAM! Must have gone to sleep immediately.

Woke up a little after 7:00 am but I have never been one who jumps out of bed. By 7:55, I decided I better get moving.

Went downstairs, washed, brushed the teeth and got dressed. Took the final boxes out to the garage (Have I told you my goal for the time Gene is gone is to get the boxes we packed when we remodeled the kitchen into the garage?) and left the dolly there. There are a couple more boxes that need to go but I can carry these. Made me feel good that this was done.

Decided I was hungry for Burger Kings "breakfast burritos" and hash rounds. The hash rounds were exactly what I wanted but the sauce on the burrito left something to be desired. Guess next time I want them I need to go to McDonalds for the burritos and Burger King for the hash round :)

Got to Roswell and the parking garage was almost empty . . . guess the place runs on a skeleton crew on the weekends. The lobby was a ghost town. Glad to see that 6W was buzzing. 

Gene was asleep . . . surprise, surprise, surprise. But he heard me come in and woke up. Found out that he had walked (using the IV pole for assistance) into the bathroom and had washed everything he could reach AND washed his hair. (Have you seen the cap they put on them to wash hair? It looks like a white shower cap, Gene says it gets warm and feels good, then you rub your hands over it, just like you would with shampoo. When you take it off, your hair is wet and clean.) I was so proud . . probably like a momma whose toddler learns something new!

When the weekend physical therapist came in he told her he had been moving his feet and legs, marching while sitting in the chair and raising his arms over his head. She was impressed with that and the bathing . . . those were two things that were his goals.

She took him for a lap around the hall PLUS up and down 5 steps. His steps were so much better and more self assured today.

Dr Bonnie Gleason, who is Medical Director of IMCU and 6E (I think 6E might be ICU) stopped in when Hannah (Gene's nurse) was in the room.

Man, you should have heard her rattle off everything he has attached to him, his meds and anything else she knows about him. 

This is the 3rd time I have seen her. 1st time was in Gene's room. 2nd time was in the elevator one evening when I was leaving. She told me how happy she was with the progress he was making and that he was so much better than Day 1.

Today she gave us a thumbs up and said to keep going in the right direction. That made me feel VERY good.

Dr Kukar, the dr who assisted in the surgery and some other young guy ( who was following them) came in. She (assisting dr) was taking notes, Dr Kukar checked the right drainage bag . . not happy with the color but did say the left bag could be removed. Maybe it will be out tomorrow?

Tonight I am going to write down what I want to ask him so it makes sense. I didn't ask him what I had thought about because my mind was mush this morning.

I was so tired all morning. I couldn't get comfortable in the chairs. I took my shoes off and put my feet up on the bed (Gene sits in the reclining chair all day) and that wasn't much better. Maybe I'm getting the bed sores on my butt instead of Gene?  LOLOL Yesterday the bed was in another position in the room and I could sit with my feet up on the raised foot of Gene's chair without bothering him. Now THAT felt good.

Let's see . . what have they done, or changed, since I left yesterday? There was something about the catheter . . I want to say the urine showed an infection, but whatever it was they weren't sure if it was from the catheter or Gene. But, until they could find out, they started him on antibiotics.

Next, his sugar level was up. Nurse said that is normal when they start the nutrition through the PICC Line. Again, I need to ask more on this too.

About 10:30 I realized I needed to get home before I was too sleepy to drive. I woke Gene up, gave him a kiss and said I needed to get home to rest so I will be in good shape for both he and I.

It's 6:30 now. I got home around noon I have showered, washed my hair, paid two of Gene's dr bills online and FINALLY got my tablet connected to our WiFi. Tomorrow I'll get Gene's hooked up. His is charging now. Now THAT will make his day. 

His is getting charged right now. When I hooked his up I realized I threw the cord and plug that came with mine. I thought it was the one that went with out old cell phone. Now I will need to see how I can get a new one for mine so we can charge at the same time :)

Okay . . off to get laundry and make myself something to eat. All of a sudden I'm getting REAL hungry.