Post Op

Monday was a very long day!  We arrived at the hospital before 7:30 a.m.  We weren't in the waiting room for long but after going back to get the lovely gown on, yada, yada, we were back there forever before he finally went to surgery about an hour late.

waiting.....

The first initials with the arrow (as if you couldn't tell where the problem was.....however weirder things have happened!)  was by the anesthesiologist, the other initials are the surgeon's.

waiting.....

 Finally about 2:00 Tim was taken to the "day hospital" in the cancer center.  As soon as I got there from the surgical waiting room, he was talking about food!  Which I am glad of, because my banana was long gone!  He was looking at the hospital menu and was going to order cereal!  I said, well, I'm going to Chick fil-A or somewhere else.  He decided a Subway sandwich sounded pretty good.  So I got him his usual Spicy Italian on Italian Herb and Cheese bread with lettuce, tomato, onions, green peppers and cucumber with Sweet Onion Sauce, salt, pepper and oregano.  I ordered a personal pepperoni pizza with banana peppers, onions and green peppers.  YUM!  This picture was taken at 2:42 p.m......I think he finished my pizza at around 7:00!  I was so happy to see he had an appetite because he was not allowed to leave until he had been able to eat and pee!

Wound vac sponge to aid in the skin graft taking.

So, one of the doctors (I believe he was an intern) who was on the floor of the day hospital asked how he was feeling, etc.  His vitals were good.  But, we could not go home without the home unit wound vac.  The doctor said he would go ahead and put the orders in to leave contingent upon getting the wound vac.  Well, that didn't happen for whatever reason.

The wound vac finally arrived a little after 7 p.m.  Tim's nurse didn't come back into the room til around 7:30, so we thought it was just a matter of now ordering the wheel chair to take Tim to the car.  WRONG!  The doctor had never put in the discharge orders.  So that had to be taken care of first.  That took about 2 hours!  Then we waited almost an hour for the wheel chair.

When we got home, Tim had a bowl of cereal and then settled into his recliner after checking his e-mail and sending a note to his mom to let her know he was home.  He watched TV a bit and did some reading.  Finally around 1:30 we both went to bed, or should I say, we both reclined.....him to his recliner and me to our bed.  He was worried about rolling over in the night onto his left side where all the work had taken place, so he decided to sleep in the recliner instead of the bed.

This morning, I woke up around 7:45 with a sinus headache.  I got up to take some tylenol.  Tim had the news on.  He came up to the kitchen and I helped him fix a bowl of cereal and then I went back to bed so the tylenol would have a chance to work.  When I woke up again an hour later Tim was over in his office at the church.  So, I figured he must be feeling OK, praise the Lord!

I got ready and went to Walmart to pick up his antibiotic and the nausea meds the hospital had ordered, make the deposit and get a few groceries.  His pain has not been bad enough to warrant filling the oxy-codeine prescription, which is probably what the nausea meds were for.  I am so thankful for that!

When I got back I fixed us both something to eat.  He worked a bit more in the office and then took a nap in the bed this afternoon.  I suggested that we place something at his back so he would not be tempted to roll over to his left side.  So, he got situated in the bed and then I tucked everything around and on him.  He needed to prop up his left arm a bit because just laying it on his side was pulling the surgery site too much.  Of course I had to take a picture, to which he laughed!  :D  He is such a good sport!  He went right to sleep.  He only slept about an hour, however.  I thought he would sleep longer because he said all he did in the recliner last night was doze off and on.

Here's a better picture of the wound vac sponge.  I am so glad I do not have to change this dressing!

And here is where the skin grafting work was done on his left outer thigh.  YIKES!  That is a BIG area!!

 Tim is staying in the recliner again tonight.  I hope he can rest better than he did last night!


Well, the Christmas order for the grandkids is slowly trickling in!  :D

The neighbor and I worked on a craft project that we will be doing at the Ladies' Meeting this Friday night.  I think everyone will enjoy it!  I'll post a picture of it tomorrow.  Today we drilled 2 holes in about 300 craft sticks for the project.

And, that is it for me tonight.