The day after surgery

The next day was full of progress.

My merciless nurse, Agnes, was gone for the day and Beth had returned with sunshine and a strong desire to make me feel better. Again I didn't feel like I needed much but she checked on me just the same.

It occurred to me late in the morning that I hadn't eaten at all the previous day and I thought I should start eating something. Not because I was hungry but I knew I needed to eat something to maintain my weight. I asked if I was being fed through the IV and they said it was just a saline solution to keep me hydrated. Okay, how about some food? Yes, of course, how does yogurt sound? Steak sounds much better. With a sly grin Beth left and returned with covered plate... To my surprise, it was yogurt. It turns out she's evil too, she just pretends to be nice.

Overall I felt pretty good. I didn't take any pain medication until about 11am. As far as I know I went all evening without any pain meds. Once I began taking Percoset at 4 hour intervals I soon noticed that the last hour of those interval were the most difficult as my head and neck would begin to hurt as the medication wore off. We got in the routine of using morphine near the third hour to keep the pain at bay.

A different nurse came in about the middle of the day to take me for my walk. I felt like I had aged forty years and I had immediate visions of what I'd be like when I'm 80 years old, all hunched over, walking slowly, carrying my urine bag. The walk was good however. I was surprised to see that I could stand on my own. I kept my balance without too much trouble and the only thing that felt uncomfortable was my catheter. (Curse the guy who invented catheters...)

Thankfully my mom was with me during my hospital stay and she helped me pass the day telling stories and allowing me to pontificate on my many random subjects. Watching the Beijing (pronounced Bei-Jing) Olympics was great for a while but hearing about Michael Phelps over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, ad nauseum when you include the re-runs, got old. He's a stud, we get it.

My wife and kids also came to visit that evening. Since I was a neuro patient, I had a room to myself and not subject to normal visiting hours. That meant my mom could stay with me overnight and the rest of my family was able to come by after school /football /showers /dinner /etc. It was a nice diversion and made for good conversation. My boyz are the light of my life and I love them to death but when you have a headache, 8 & 9 year old boyz in an 8'x10' room with nothing to do can find your nerves very quickly. These two handsome little devils need to be outside, all the time. And as much as I love to wrestle with them, I just couldn't do it right then. Play time would have to wait.