vicodin |

“From Patience comes Power”

We are officially 2 days post surgery and my wife was taken home 25 hours after her surgery was complete. She was itching to go home to her own bed. When transporting the patient home, it is always a good idea to bring a pillow to cushion against the seat belt straps.

We were sent home with two vials to measure drains and lots of medication: Vicadin, Ibuprophen, Atavin and Keflix. They are lots to take and the Vicodin dosage we already cut in half as it was just too heavy of a drug for her. We got her home and then brought the kids in one at a time to see their mother. Our son shed a tear for the first time. When later asked if he was sad, he just said he was happy. I think seeing his mother looking normal in bed and seeing that she was okay was a big relief for him. Our daughter was next and gave her mother a dainty hug. She was surprised to see her out of bed, but I think that once again it helped relieve the tension and worries that our kids had.

Meals have been great and flowers have been plentiful (almost too plentiful as we have run out of vases). I do recommend you tell people do not buy flowers and rather send a donation to a cancer cause such as standup2cancer.org or the Susan G. Koman Foundation. The letters from all the women have been incredibly uplifting for my wife. Inspiration and Admiration are the words most used and they are appropriate. I am definitely inspired by any cancer survivor. Although every case is different, the stories I have heard along the way have touched me and now living with a woman who is surviving makes me so proud.

Keeping my wife down has been the hard part as I remind her that she is the patient while I am home. Although she is feeling the energy to get around, I want her to conserve it. Patience is what she needs. My duties as her personal nurse today included washing her hair, stripping and dumping out her drains, and answering all calls and doorbells. She is currently draining 70ccs of blood per side and needs to be draining 30ccs or less for her drains to be removed.

Most importantly my wife does not appear to be in much pain although she is suffering from some discomfort.

“Stop, rest, and recover like a normal person. There are no heroics the day after.”

The surgery went well. First review of the nodes appears to be clear and we will be waiting for pathology reports over the next 10 days. It was great news to sperad around but we are still being cautious and not letting our guard down.

Because my wife has had a history of nausea with pain medication, they brought her out of her sleep very slowly. They kept her in the Post Surgery Unit for almost two hours and then brought her out to be brought to her private room around 3pm. Surgery ended around 12:30.

Having a sister-in-law as a nurse was very helpful in helping her to stay rested although my wife was already ready to run laps around the hall and as usual was chatting away. That was until dinner when I became the clean-up guy as she couldn’t hold her food down. They had her on Dilaudid and Vicodin, but it really was still the anaesthesia wearing off that was making her ill. She couldn’t hold down chicken broth or crackers. They also had her doing breathing exercises to avoid pneumonia.

She isn’t in much pain in her chest but rather is having some headaches probably from caffeine withdrawal and lack of food. We are off the drip and are now on Ibuprofen which she will be alternating with Vicodin at home. We are down to probably one vicodin pill instead of two.

The hard is getting my wife to shut it down (and up). She’s running around the room one minute and getting sick the next. It is now noon and she is antsy to get out of here, but they aren’t going to let her go until after she shows she can eat something and hold it down. My take is that because she is small, the drugs are making her loopy, so although she feels well, she is probably slightly overdrugged.

I do see the excitment in her now that it is over. That is a great thing for me. My biggest concern was her mental stability and her ability to deal with the loss for the period of time it would take for her to get back to normal. She seems to have her fight back and is ready to go. I just need to have her rest and recover for now. One thing I did get her today was the SOFTEE, a product that has lightweight breast forms you can easitly put into place. You can also pull it on over your legs rather than over your head and it has a nice ROO pouch that you can use to place the drains in. and not let them hang.

It looks really comfortable and I think it will be well worth it. Make sure to get the Softee Two and not the original which does not have the Roo pockets.

Hopefully we’ll be able to get her home in the next coiuple of hours and

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