Recovery Begins

 Almost caught up here - just a couple more days.

I think it was around 6 that I was carted out of post op and to a regular room. To me it was a maze of corridors and doors. I ended up in a single room somewhere. I remember my wife being there. I remember her asking me if I wanted dinner. I had no appetite. I'm glad she insisted that the nurse bring some juice and jello though. 

I was pretty much out of it the rest of the evening. I was in some pain from the incision (at this point I didn't know how large it was). It was pretty obvious at this point there was no chance of being released Friday evening. I think my wife left around 8:30, and I tried to get some sleep. I would drift in and out of sleep, usually awakened by the RN or PCA to take vitals or give me some meds.

The one other thing I remember was the longer the night went and the more aware I became, the more uncomfortable I got. I was wearing some socks and these inflatable leggings to reduce clotting. I had tubes laying across my leg (catheter), standard IV lines across my upper body and telemetry electrodes on my back. I was sliding down in the bed since I had it in a semi-sitting position. All of this was leading to more and more or a feeling of discomfort.

The nurse had asked a couple of times if I wanted to try get up. I had been nicely turning her down, but finally, around 4AM I had enough. With her help, I was able to get out of bed without getting tangled in the tubes and electrodes. I distinctly remember my knees shaking, but when I got back into bed, I for some pretty deep sleep for a couple of hours.

Things proceeded pretty quickly from there:

• Got up and walked the hallway at around 6AM. Sat in a chair for a while before returning to bed.
• Had some oatmeal for breakfast. The brown sugar was delicious! Drank the juice from the night before.
• Doctor came in to visit at 9:30AM. He reiterated that the tumor removal was pretty textbook. We talked about wound care and expectations over he next few days. He removed the dressing from the incision, noted it was oozing a little, but basically said that the catheter would be removed and when I felt I was ready, I was good to go home (yea!).
• Nurse came in around 10 and removed the catheter. What a strange feeling. I'm hoping it will be a loooonnnnggggg time before I have another put in. Nurse mentions that the only thing between the hospital room and me heading home is the doctor wants proof that I can pee. Based on my past, this shouldn't be a problem.
• Marmar showed up around 10:30.
• Spent the next three hours waiting for the urge (to pee). Ended up ordering lunch instead.
• Ate lunch (yummy tuna fish sandwich). Drumming fingers. It's 3:30PM. It's been a long time since watching an entire baseball game on TV (it may have even been an extra inning game).
• Back to drumming fingers. Went for another walk down the hallway and past the nurses' station. Finally, sometime after 5, my bladder decided it had had enough and unleashed about 275 mls. 
• One scan later to make sure my bladder had emptied itself sufficiently, I changed clothes and got sprung from the joint.

Got home around 8PM on Saturday. I struggled to make it up the two steps into the front door and shuffled over to the recliner sofa, where I had decided I would be spending the next couple of days. It had been about 48 hours since leaving home on Thursday. When I sit back and think about what had happened during those two days, it's absolutely amazing what medical science can accomplish in 2022. I am thankful that I live when I do and that this was not something that was happening 20 years ago.