After spending five and a half days in the hospital, Don is finally home. I brought him home late in the afternoon on D-Day. I felt rather like we had just been through a war, too. What a relief to be home. He feels good, all things considered. They kept him in the hospital longer than usual, I think, because the surgery was so long and complicated, and to make sure his heart issues weren’t going to give him any problems. We were told on Friday that he’d get to go home the next day, but as anyone who has ever been in the hospital knows, it took forEVER to get checked out on Saturday. The surgeon/urologist gave his okay to go at about 2 p.m. Then the nurse removed his metal staples and covered the slits with an antibiotic tape, removed his foley (what fun), and pulled the IV tube out of his neck. For some reason they put the IV in his neck instead of his arm. He said that having his tubes ripped out wasn’t all that enjoyable, but it didn’t bother him that much either. He has an amazing tolerance for discomfort. Since the day of the operation, he has not had any pain medication stronger than Tylenol.
Oddly, when Don came out of the recovery room on Monday, he had a black eye, which he did not have before he went in. The anesthesiologist thought that maybe the oxygen tube they stuck up his nose may have caused it, and the surgeon agreed. I wondered if perhaps the anesthesiologist had studied at the Popeye the Sailor Man School of Putting People to Sleep By Socking Them in the Eye. If so, he wouldn’t admit to it.
We have an appointment to see the urologist on June 18. The Doc said we’ll just have to wait and see if everything will begin to function normally. At least the stones are gone, the operation ordeal is over, and Don is out of the hospital. Our plan now is to sleep for two or three days.
June 8th, 2009
So glad he’s home …
June 9th, 2009
Me, too!