Postop Day 8

Hello from Baltimore to everyone--

We've had a very eventful day today here. First and foremost, the best news since the last update that I posted is....no more tubes at all! The last chest tube and what they call J Drains (drains from his belly getting all the rest of that chemo solution out of him) are all gone, so now all Doug has to deal with is the IV lines, and thank goodness they aren't even going through his neck anymore! This is very good, and allows Doug to really move around a bit more freely. He now has no problem getting from the bed to the chair on his own, and does several laps a day around the floor without holding on to anything. Again, all great progress.

Some other good news from today--doug is again eating solid food! He had some lovely looking scrambled eggs and cheerios for breakfast today, and had some really gross looking chicken and rice stuff for lunch, and quite honestly i'm not really sure WHAT was on that plate for his dinner! Ahhh...hospital food. I think the only food better than hospital food is airline food......it might be a tossup though. Unfortunatly every meal has been kind of a hassle since for some reason the computer down in the kitchen is not registering the fact that he is back on a normal diet and keeps sending up meals consisting of jello and broth, which we have to promptly send back. This morning it took them three tries. sigh......oh well. Another good thing from today is that he also got to take a shower. Now this may sound like a small thing, but for anyone who is an "indoor girl" like myself, if you go camping for a couple of days how good does that first shower feel when you get back? Now, multiply that times probably a zillion. I've never had an operation but I have to imagine that a shower adds a sense of normalcy to a very abnormal situation. For all of you beard fans out there though, don't worry Doug has decided to not shave yet!

So here is what else happened today--I have to set up this situation by starting out saying that we had an extremely long night last night. The IV drips that Doug had kept dinging at us, then we would have to call the nurse, then she'd come in and put them on hold, then they would ding again....etc.....etc.......this went on from about 3:30 am on. Then of course there is the 6 am wakeup for vital signs and blood sugar testing, then around 7:45 Dr. Sardi and his troops came in to chat (they are so chipper in the morning!), then Paula the nurse came back 10 minutes later, then another nurse came in......I finally got up with the realization that sleep and I were not meant to be friends this morning! So then this nursing student comes in. She was nice, but quite obviously a little bit new at this. She then decides to recommend to Doug that with everything going on with him it might be worth it to go back to community college to take some science or biology classes. He then proceeds to answer her in the deadpan way that only Doug can-"I have a degree in molecular cell biology". Now normally I would feel bad and think he was being rude, but this was after this student had said to me a couple of minutes earlier "wow and YOU must have a lot of time on your hands!" (i'm still lying in my pullout chair at this point as its about 8 am and there has been a steady stream of doctors and nurses in all morning). Oh how little she knows........anyway those of you who know Doug know exactly the massive eye roll and tone of voice that he informed this student about his prior knowledge of science and biology---a classic Doug moment and nice to see his old self continue to fight through to the surface!

Doug's hands are still bothering him pretty badly, so Dr. Sardi sent a neurologist up to see him just to make sure we weren't missing anything. The neurologist did a bunch of tests on him and thinks that he has very similar symptoms of Carpal Tunnel syndrome (which coincidentally is a common side effect of diabetes) so he now has Doug in the wrist splints I'm sure you have all seen people in your offices or around wearing. Hopefully the wrist splints will give him some relief, but we may have to go and visit a specialist once we get home to get more guidance on that. The poor guy can't catch a break! I know he's feeling a bit better and would like to read a book or a magazine but his fingers hurt so he would have trouble turning the pages. I wish i could do somethingfor him to help! Another thing they did today was they took away the pain pump! He had a pump that had morphine in it where he could press a button and he would get a jolt of pain meds. It was a sad thing for him to see it go, and he's been in quite a lot of pain most of the evening tonight. The new painkillers (Percosets and dilaudid) will take a little while to really take hold and get into his bloodstream, so its been a long night for my poor guy. As always though, he is such a trooper and is taking it so well with very little complaining at all. He never ceases to amaze me.

Unfortunatly today Doug was taken on a field trip to Radiology and Occupational Therapy unexpectedly and we missed meeting one of Dr. Sardi's patients that had the MOAS in january of 2008. If you guys are reading this, I am so sorry to have missed you, thank you for the wonderful card and I hope that your meeting went well today! Thank you for all of your kind words of encouragement the last week, it has been great! David and Amy are here as well so I had the opportunity to hang out with them a bit, both here with Doug as well as going out to dinner at a great restaurant. Its always so nice to see them, and I know that Doug was very happy to have them here to see him.

So off to bed now for us, I'm hoping that all of the drugs start to hit Doug hard so that he finally gets at least a few hours straight of sleep (and me too!). Tomorrow will bring more of the same--more walking, eating, showering, and recovering! We've both agreed we're tired of the hospital and want to follow all possible orders that Dr. Sardi and his team gives to Doug in order to make sure that he is able to get out of here as soon as possible (well, as soon as the doctors think it is safe and he is ready!).

Thank you all agian for your continued love and support--and thank you for all of the great cards and packages and things that you've been sending--we have a "wall of fame" going with all of the cards and stuff that Doug gets! :-)

Miss and love you all, keep the positive thoughts coming our way--
Love, Lindsey