Saturday, October 3rd 2009
Andrew had a fairly good night. He was in and out of pain and in and out of sleep. He wakes up mainly to push that pain button.
7:45am Dr Karnes arrives and shakes Andrew's hand, "hello partner". He
spent 15 mins telling us about the operation - he is very pleased with
the outcome and said that Andrew is a star patient. Yesterday, he gave
me a box with the gallstones in it - there are over 50 of them and
quite large. No wander Andrew suffered with them but in a way I'm
hugely grateful because without them the cancer would not have been
diagnosed. Dr Karnes looked at the wounds and I saw them for the first
time. He has 3 bandaids on his upper right side from the gallbladder
op. He has a small drain on the left side which will be removed in 3
days and another quite large drain on the right side - both are stents
draining the fluid from the operation area.
9:20am Time for morning constitutional. Somehow or other Crystal, the
nurse, manages to get Andrew standing on his feet and together with a
tall walker he goes shuffling off down the corridor. He manages about
12 yards on the first outing and he doesn't quite manage to walk back.
Crystal had to grab a chair and wheel him back to bed. It did knock him
out though and he managed a 40 minute nap and I managed to get down to
the cafeteria for breakfast.
12:00 2nd walk of the day and this time he manages at least 30 yards
and didn't need the chair at all. Poor thing cannot have anything to
eat or drink and he is so thirsty all the time. Crystal said that it's
the after effects of the anaesthesia and the oxygen which he's getting
constantly. He's allowed to put water in his mouth but has to spit it
out. He's also allowed to chew gum and this apparently helps the bowel
to start moving. Brushing his teeth this afternoon also cheered him up!
4:00 Another walk - this time he managed to get almost to the end of
the corridor and back and then sit in the chair. All this effort earned
him 4 smiley faces on his 'goals' billboard but sitting in the chair
lasted only a few minutes as all that effort had tired him out and he
needed to sleep. All in all an amazing first day.
Time has flown by even though I am only sitting here. Thank goodness the hospital has WIFI and I can sit here and write this...
Will keep you posted.
love to you all and many many thanks for all your kind thoughts and
prayers - I read them all out to Andrew and we are both very touched.
T
x
