Beginning of Recovery

Well, it’s now nearly 10:00PM. Mom left the recovery room around 6:30PM and settled into her private room in the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center portion of this large hospital campus http://www.orlandoregional.org/mdanderson/index.aspx. It’s in Downtown Orlando and only about two miles from my house. Linn and I went to eat around 5:30 at the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies which is a few short blocks from here. It’s a very unique facility in look and mission. We heard they had better food :-). It was pretty good.

We got back shortly after she was given her room. Mom was awake when we came in and we spoke a bit. She feels as one might expect after major surgery. She was experiencing pain and discomfort but has a personal control button for the pain medication. She said she wanted to sleep. The nurse gave us an “orientation” of the room and some care procedures. We learned that there is a Murphy bed in the room so I decided I wanted to spend the night and Linn should go home and get some rest. Hopefully my snoring and mom’s won’t get us evicted.

I went home to take care of my kids (KC and Lance… cat & dog), changed clothes and came back. For those of you who are freezing… it’s in the 70’s tonight and I came back wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

Linn’s coming back in the morning. Mom, in her usual style, said there is no need for anyone to stay. We felt it important to be her on her first night post op.

About 9:30PM Mom woke again saying she wanted to get off her back. I tried to relieve her a bit and had her pull herself with her arms against my arms. The doctor wants her to get any and all muscles moving again as soon as possible. While we were talking she was feeling more nauseous from the anesthesia. I called the nurse who came and gave her some IV medication to help relieve that discomfort. The nurse and assistant then enabled Mom to be able to be partially turned and propped with a pillow for more comfort sleeping. The meds also induced more drowsiness and she is sleeping quite well at this time.

The nurse said that if she continued having the nausea she would give her some Zofran. Whatcha think Cheryl P? :-O

I’m here watching closed caption Apprentice. It’s even MORE boring than it has been with the sound!

The hospital computer servers are only letting me receive mail so I am unable to send updates from my usual mail account. Please check here periodically as I am finding it the most efficient way for me to stay in touch.

I have to tell you… before Mom dozed off this time she said, “This place is pretty nice, I might have to stay awhile!” I laughed and said, “I don’t think so.”

She’s gonna shoot me for telling you but she’s sawing some pretty good logs right now. God bless her!

OH, by the way… I can’t remember if I said this already but for the next few days Mom’s cell phone will be forwarded to my phone or Linn’s. Leave a message if we don’t pickup and we’ll do our best to get back to you. The cell coverage is very good in this building.