So it's 8am post op day 1, and I'm up in a cardiac chair and my nurse, Robert, brought me toradol and coffee. This makes him the best human ever in my book.
I have a Dilaudid PCA, and I banged on it 14 times overnight (four of which were before and after I got out of bed this morning.) So if I sound disjointed and fuzzy, it's because I am. I also have a pulseox on my left middle finger, making it difficult to type the letters e, c, d, and I keep putting extra r's and f's in things.
Have not seen Dr. J or her PA post op. (Or if I did in PACU, I have no reollection of it.) Since it's Saturday, I'll probably see the PA. She fixed the ribs, and I asked her to fix the cartilage, too. She had heard from Kelly that the breast cancer was on the left, and was concerned about putting more metal there...and then proposed we wait until the bars come out in April 2019. And I don't want to have another big surgery looming ahead of me. So she plated it. I don't know what I look like yet. I've got a foam dressing and a binder over it.
I've got a chest tube in, which has put out almost nothing, so hopefully that will come out today and my pain will immediately improve by leaps and bounds. I've got a JP drain in, too, to suction (wall suction, not just the bulb itself, which is a weird setup). It has put out 120ccs of serosanguinous...I'm not sure if it's submuscular? on the left? I don't know, and I will ask. My estimated blood loss from surgery was about 200ccs. I don't know if that's normal for the modified Ravitch. There was only 50 EBL from the original Nuss.
She told me she had to make an incision under my left breast and up and clockwise medially. More scars. It's fine. The scars don't bother me. I'll just look tough in a swimsuit.
And I've got an IV in one of the worst places possible: my left hand, between my ring finger and pinky...that little vessel there was all she could find. I asked anesthesia to put one in my forearm once they fill me up with fluid, but maybe they couldn't find a vessel, either. I did have an A-line for the case; I just took that dressing off. And a foley, of course. About an hour after Robert gives me my Lasix this morning, I want that out, too.
So we should be able to get rid of the chest tube, the foley, the continuous pulseox, and the PCA today. And maybe I can persuade them to take the tele monitor off, too.
And yeah, I hurt. Coffee makes it better. Having it over with makes it better. Dilaudid takes the edge off, but it doesn't do a whole lot more for the pain. Makes me sleepy. Like, I think I'm blinking for too long. They didn't do the epidural, because of concern for infection. So, okay. The epidural would've been the best thing for the rib pain; but it's okay. The toradol is kicking in, and it's all right.
So now I'm getting really sleepy. I did sleep okay last night, considering I'm inpatient.
Robert's back. I'll be back later.
I have a Dilaudid PCA, and I banged on it 14 times overnight (four of which were before and after I got out of bed this morning.) So if I sound disjointed and fuzzy, it's because I am. I also have a pulseox on my left middle finger, making it difficult to type the letters e, c, d, and I keep putting extra r's and f's in things.
Have not seen Dr. J or her PA post op. (Or if I did in PACU, I have no reollection of it.) Since it's Saturday, I'll probably see the PA. She fixed the ribs, and I asked her to fix the cartilage, too. She had heard from Kelly that the breast cancer was on the left, and was concerned about putting more metal there...and then proposed we wait until the bars come out in April 2019. And I don't want to have another big surgery looming ahead of me. So she plated it. I don't know what I look like yet. I've got a foam dressing and a binder over it.
I've got a chest tube in, which has put out almost nothing, so hopefully that will come out today and my pain will immediately improve by leaps and bounds. I've got a JP drain in, too, to suction (wall suction, not just the bulb itself, which is a weird setup). It has put out 120ccs of serosanguinous...I'm not sure if it's submuscular? on the left? I don't know, and I will ask. My estimated blood loss from surgery was about 200ccs. I don't know if that's normal for the modified Ravitch. There was only 50 EBL from the original Nuss.
She told me she had to make an incision under my left breast and up and clockwise medially. More scars. It's fine. The scars don't bother me. I'll just look tough in a swimsuit.
And I've got an IV in one of the worst places possible: my left hand, between my ring finger and pinky...that little vessel there was all she could find. I asked anesthesia to put one in my forearm once they fill me up with fluid, but maybe they couldn't find a vessel, either. I did have an A-line for the case; I just took that dressing off. And a foley, of course. About an hour after Robert gives me my Lasix this morning, I want that out, too.
So we should be able to get rid of the chest tube, the foley, the continuous pulseox, and the PCA today. And maybe I can persuade them to take the tele monitor off, too.
And yeah, I hurt. Coffee makes it better. Having it over with makes it better. Dilaudid takes the edge off, but it doesn't do a whole lot more for the pain. Makes me sleepy. Like, I think I'm blinking for too long. They didn't do the epidural, because of concern for infection. So, okay. The epidural would've been the best thing for the rib pain; but it's okay. The toradol is kicking in, and it's all right.
So now I'm getting really sleepy. I did sleep okay last night, considering I'm inpatient.
Robert's back. I'll be back later.
