I mentioned in my earlier post this week that I had to stop by Dr. Adams' office so his RN could look at my incision site. She looked & called him. We ended up having to go to the emergency room, where we expected that I would get hooked up to an IV to get a big ol' dose of antibiotics. Silly us. It turned into a much bigger deal than that, including a CT scan which showed a large pocket of fluid at the site. The big questions are if the infection is only on the surface or if it's deeper, and if deeper, how deep. Taking no chances, Dr. Adams re-admitted me into the hospital Friday early evening (yes, my 10am appointment with the nurse turned into an all-day event), and it looks like I will be here until at least Monday. I get a big dose of antibiotics every 12 hours, and thankfully some pain meds every once in a while... sometimes, of course, not soon enough.
It's about 8:35pm right now, and my sister, Kathy left about an hour ago, because I was suddenly very, very sleepy. I napped for like 10 minutes, but then the pain began, and I've been up and waiting for my next dose of meds ever since. I expected them at 8:30pm, and I'm fixin' to push the nurse button any minute now.
I have to say, the nurses this time around are super, each one of them so far. 3 weeks ago, during my 5-day stay after surgery, most of them were great; some of them were awful. I have decided not to put myself through any agony because of anger-filled or issue-dealing night nurses who won't give me meds. You can figure out what I mean by that, I'm sure. God helps those who help themselves, some wise person once said.
I also got to talk with Dr. Adams today, and for the first time, I felt like I really had his attention. This is the 4th time I've seen him since my surgery... I saw him twice after surgery during that 5-day hospital stay, both times for a brief 5 minutes. I saw him last night when he finally came to see me after being in surgery All Day Long... he came in around midnight (yes, midnight), and woke me from a sound sleep, apologized and said some things, and I'm pretty sure I said some things, too, but I was just really waking up when he left, about 5 minutes after he arrived. So getting to talk with him today, and pulling out my little notebook on which I had written down 8 questions, he took the time to listen and to answer each question. He also told me I will see him tomorrow.
Basically, I am here to have them treat the infection as if it's very deeply seated, because it sounded like Dr. Adams doesn't want to re-open the site and drain the fluid, and he doesn't want to aspirate the site either... both options could introduce infection deep inside that possibly isn't there now. We're on a do this (antibiotics via IV) and see how it goes pattern right now. OK in my book. I don't really want another incision now.
Also, I'm feeling pretty good, all in all. Still painful, controllable with meds, and some soreness at the incision site, but if it were a severe, deep infection, I got the impression that I would be feeling sick, sick, sick... and I feel ok. Tired, but ok.
Kathy came a little bit before Kev and Sammy left. So good to see my Sammy and hug him. Kathy brought me 2 gifts, a little book of word finds (I love word finds!) and a beautiful Disney Princesses coloring book and a box of brand new, lovely crayons. I can't wait to color! Kathy told me she thought it would be soothing for me to color, and she's right, it will be. She also brought Yahtzee and beat me 2 outta 2 games. Then we took a walk, before playing our 3rd game... I thought the walk would wake me up, but I was just crashing. If I had known my nap would last about 10 minutes I would have asked her to wait!
But the good news is, which is evident because you're reading this, I found out laptops are allowed in the hospital. That made me so very happy! I was working on running some reports at home and had planned to finish them up on Friday afternoon and get them to the person who requested them (I'm not working from home much yet, just a few things, and keeping up on e-mail). She needed the reports for an audit... so now I can finish them and she'll have them Monday morning. I had told her she'd get them by Friday, and I hate it when I don't deliver when I said I would. I think getting admitted into the hospital is a good excuse though, don't you?...
Anyway, the laptop will also help to keep extreme boredom at bay, both with work I can do and blogs I can read, and blog posts I can get done. Happy, happy, joy, joy.
And speaking of happy, Mike's surgery in Ann Arbor went well, and he got to go home today. Joycie said he's very sore, but doing ok. He's a strong, young man, that's for sure. When I talked with her Thursday morning after he'd gone into surgery, her voice was stiff sounding and a little off... she was clearly very worried. When I next talked with her after he was out of surgery and she was with him, her voice was all warm sounding. I talked with her a couple more times, and she still had that warmth in her voice, calling him Mikey, and telling me how good he was doing, how sore he was though, and all. I know where the warmth comes from, and I'm happy for my girl. I'm so glad Mike's surgery went well, and that he's home now. Being home is the best... his momma and family will take good care of him. I know Joycie isn't going to want to leave to go to class on Monday. But she's gotta.
I hope I get to go home by Monday. Since I'm not feeling awful, I feel like I should not be here. It's not at all like the stay right after the surgery. But I do realize the seriousness of this. A deep infection there, right near my spine, and oh yeah, my brain, would not be a good thing. Dr. Adams is consulting with the infectious diseases doctor here at the hospital, a Dr. Abollo (I think), and he mentioned that my IV antibiotics may have to continue for a while, but that I should be able to have a PIC (peripherally inserted catheters) and do the IV antibiotics myself at home. Fingers crossed.
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