Day 14: Hurting Hoses are History!!

Louise lost 4 tubes but, most importantly, the last two hurting hoses were removed. Those chest tubes are what have caused her the most pain in the hospital. You would think it would be her two big incisions or the new connection of her stomach and esophagus. No, it was mostly these big chest tubes. They were probably 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter and were put in between her ribs all the way to the middle of her back on both sides. They have been there for 14 days. Today the last two on her right side were taken out. She also lost the epidural in her back and her catheter. It will help her so much not to have that pain. But it also means that her lungs and chest cavity are working the way they should and there are no air pockets left in her chest. It also means the fluids in the chest can be easily absorbed by her body. That marks a ticket for her release soon.

I wish I could say that she was without pain, but I can't. I think her braised chest is still pretty painful. That pain is supposed to go away soon. But she still has to get pain medication and it still played tricks on her conscious mind. She can fall in and out of sleep in 2 minutes and have something silly to say each time she wakes up. But she laughs about it too because she knows she is daydreaming. She had a very good afternoon and even got a visit from my parents. That was real fun for her. She walked 3 laps around the pod and it was so amazing to see how much faster they could get her ready without all the tubes. She still has 3 drainage J-tubes on her neck and abdomen, but they are small and so are the containers they are attached to. They won't come out until she leaves the hospital. She also has a feeding tube that will stay with her after the hospital until she can get enough oral nourishment. They also will need to take out the thousands of staples she has all over her body before she leaves. Right now she looks like she has several long zippers.

As you can tell I am anxious to see her released from the hospital. I think she is getting close even though she is in ICU still. She really qualifies to be out of ICU at this point, but I think this hospital has open beds in ICU and not in the other rooms. I am guessing, if nothing else goes wrong, that she could be released from the hospital on Tuesday or Wednesday. They haven't told us that but that is my guess.

I apologize for rambling and I know my grammar is atrocious, but you'll have to decipher what you can from this since I'm in a hurry to finish and go to bed.

Good night to you late readers who comment at all hours of the morning. You need to go to bed earlier also.

Spence