You know my ex pisses me off sometimes....why does she have to be right so often? Good thing I like her. As a matter of fact she brought me to the hospital for surgery...a good egg I say. But she kept saying..."wait until day two...it might take a turn for the worse then". Well damn if she was not right.
The day started quite auspiciously...5:30 AM and the phlebotomist was searching for a vein....excellent timing. The day was mostly uphill from there. Met with Ghiselli around 7:00...he was optimistic but guarded...he sad it can go up and down for the first few days. (must have been talking to my ex).
Today was the day I met the Physical Therapist and the Occupational Therapist. They helped me with getting out of bed, putting on back brace (which my doc wants me to wear for 3 months), how to bend over, pick things up off of the floor, what I can and cannot do, going back to work....etc.
Then about 1:00 a HUGE win...out came the catheter...not that it was that bad....just annoying. I just kept worrying that I was going to snag it on something...anyways...it is gone now...yea...the downside...I have to get up to go to the bathroom....no biggie unless the pain is up.
Speaking of pain...it was on the downward slide all day...I went off the morphine drip around noon and went on "regular" solid painkillers (percoset) and seemed to be doing great. The therapists got me up and walking around the hall and doing "laps". I felt great....until right before dinner....the pain started getting worse but again I assumed that was all "normal" in making a transition from liquid pain killers to solids.
I had dinner and right afterwards felt like I was running a fever. I pulled out the thermometer and took my own temperature (99.8 F)....sure enough. I notified the nurse and waited for her to show up. In the meantime I looked up "post surgery fever" on the web. Turns out it is pretty common. Can it be serious stuff? Yea. Does it occur in over 50% of all recoveries...yes again. Nurse gave me Tylenol for fever and had me work on spirometer (a device that checks lung capacity and helps guard against pneumonia). Basically you take a wait and see approach...the Tylenol should knock it out. They just monitor it and watch to make sure it does not go above 101.5 F. That is almost two degrees higher than where I am now...not likely...knocking on wood.
So I feel kind of crappy right now...going just try to sleep it off....on the plus side pain is down. Just need to shake the fever. See....I told you my ex was right...damn her. ;-)
Another update tomorrow...
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