recovery

I had a private room at the end of the hall.  My surgeon said it was like the penthouse suite.  I was pretty out of it for that night.  Pain meds were good but they made me so sleepy.   I couldn't even visit with Paul and the girls.  I had some pretty good nausea from the anesthesia.  They have an amazing pill that makes it go away though.  So it was a tough night.  Trying to get comfortable wasn't easy and then when I was finally asleep either someone came in the check me or the IV machine would start to beep.  At least 3 different nurses came in to try to fix it but it would just keep happening until finally at about 8am they decided I didn't need the fluids anymore.  I felt ok, but groggy.  

At about 10am two really young nurses came in and taught me how to care for my drains.  Yup, drains...I kind of forgot that I would have them.  I hadn't read anything about the procedure before hand because I was avoiding thinking about it, so it was all new to me.  The drains were these tubes that literally came right out of my body, under my armpit.  They drained fluid into these plastic bulbs that were safety pinned to my beautiful hospital gown.  I had to "milk" them 3 times a day to make sure that they were flowing right and then I would have to empty the bulbs regularly and keep track of how much fluid came out each time.  When the fluid dropped to 20 cc's in 24 hours they would take them out.  They said it would be between a week and 10 days.  The nurses then gave me two "camisoles" to wear.  They had pockets on the inside to put the drains and bulbs into.  It was better than safety pins at least.  

Then Dr. Krieinberg came in to check me.   It was nice to see her.  Paul came and we waited for discharge, which takes forever.  Poor guy had to wait there for a while. By the way, I tried to eat dinner and breakfast, but yuck !!!  Even the coffee was nasty.  When I was finally discharged I made Paul bring me right to Dunkin Donuts for a coffee !!!  Getting into the car wasn't easy.  But I did it and got home around noon.