Gut Check

I can now cross off my list of things to do "spend a night in ICU." So, the surgery went off as expected - of course I was out for all of it so what do I know? :-)

The pain is amazingly slight. The last thing I remember is the doctor trying to get the A-line in my wrists. I woke up with this A-line in my femoral artery (groin) in my right leg. As advertised I had an IV in my neck; not advertised was the catheter. I was hooked up to several macines including some cool leg wraps that inflated every five minutes to massage my legs and aid circulation.

I slept on and off through the night. I was hooked up with a personal pain medicine dispenser (this has some acronym I cannot remember). I only used it 5/6 times.

Morning brought solid food - 1/2 banana, oatmeal, french toast, and juice. I got some down but abdominal pain made me not want to take too much.

Around 10am the tubes started coming out. The A-line was worst as it required several minutes of pressure on the artery. The catheter was amazingly painless as was the neck IV.

I moved back up to the 17th floor around 11am. I tried sitting up early which was quite painful. What is interesting is how much my shoulder hurts (left) - I apparently got yanked pretty well in the OR.

Of course you learn to rate your pain on a scale of 0-10. Pretty sure I've never been at pain = 10 so it's a little hard to rate. I've been taking perkased today for the pain which has been tolerable.

Just took two laps up and down the hall for my first outing. I also ate all of my lunch and dinner so am holding down food. I assume if I get a good night's rest I'll be home tomorrow.

As Tue/Wed the hospital staff has been top notch and very helpful. The stay has been very pleasent and comfortable.

Hopefully I will be released tomorrow so I can type from my keyboard and not the Treo.