It's a cold crisp day and the sun is shining in a perfectly blue sky. Inside our hospital room, Andrew continues to make progress. Today his bowel 'woke up' which meant he could have his first meal in 6 days - a small cup of chicken broth. He sipped it very slowly making it last as long as possible. The next hour proved pretty eventful - getting in or out of bed usually takes about 10 mins by the time you have unplugged the IV stand and untangled all the drip tubes and drainage bags and then there's the electric leg stimulators to stop blood clots - well, I can tell you that we have the whole procedure down to about 20 seconds. Quite important when you need to get to the bathroom in a hurry!
He continues to have a bit of a problem with irrigation of the catheter and stents - the new bladder is quite tiny and has to be stretched slowly so when they pump in the saline fluid, neo has a bit of a paddy. The irrigation takes place every 6 hours now and it's an absolute necessity as it flushes away the mucous. For the benefit of friends and family, the intestine produces mucous to help things slide down and the new bladder is still a piece of intestine so it continues to produce the mucous. Watching the tubes and the drainage bags has become a bit of a pastime for us - it's a bit like looking at pond life....
Daily walks are now up to about 6 treks around the quadrant here on the 6th floor. The walking has to be done but it's now become quite uncomfortable as everything is swollen - doctors and nurses all say that it will be back to normal within a couple of weeks.
Andrew slept alot today - had a bit of a blah day, I think mainly because of all the swelling. I have noticed though that he hardly used the magical pain button which is a good sign. Whilst he was sleeping I managed to catch the courtesy bus to the shopping Mall - snow has been forecast for the weekend and I don't have my winter coat with me. Darn! more retail therapy required!
I hesitate to be presumptive, but at this rate of recovery there's a chance we'll be back at the condo by the end of the weekend!
Will keep you posted.
love
T
x
