Post-Op Days

After Friday’s surgery, my husband is finally feeling human again. When we got home from the hospital on Friday, he was enjoying the effects (or lack) of a nerve block. Not only was there an absence of pain – he couldn’t even move his fingers. But it was blissful . . . until about 4:00 Saturday morning. That’s when the nerve block began wearing off. Within four hours, he was going crazy with pain.

The hospital discharge instructions said to call the doctor if that happened, and the doctor on call told us to go to the ER. Well, they gave him an IV of some really powerful stuff and added Advil to his pain medication regimen. The two hours we spent there worked wonders on his pain. It turns out that the catheter delivering pain meds to the nerve surrounding the repair site might have been inserted too deeply, rendering it useless. But now his pain is at about a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10. That’s definitely an acceptable improvement.

A home health nurse visited on Sunday (yes, Sunday!) to pull out the nerve block catheter and change the bandages. Then today, a physical therapist came to get him started on the exercise chair that was delivered to the house last week. She also showed him how to eventually sleep in the bed again, instead of his recliner. I about croaked when they came into the bedroom (bed unmade, unfolded clean laundry in a basket and makeup paraphernalia all over my half of the bathroom counter). The cute young thing actually climbed into bed with him to show him how to best support his shoulder while sleeping. Well, that not only made his day – it probably made the whole ordeal worthwhile!

Post-Op Days