First thing this morning, Michael had his "lines" removed and Physical Therapy took him for a walk up and down the hall, twice the distance as yesterday. Before I could even get all my electronic devices set up for the day, he was tranferred from ICU to a "step down" room on the 8th floor. Good news? Yes. However, this room is semi-private and his roommate is a poor man with horrible back pain. He lies in his bed crying, moaning and groaning. Bless his heart.
Approximately 11:00 AM
Luckily, Michael has headphones that plug into his television remote, so he does not hear him. And I requested ear plugs for him when he goes to sleep tonight. Speaking of sleep, Michael was awake more of the day today and seemed to feel well. It's such a small room and very cramped. Whenever Mari Ann and I sat down, we would have to get up so that a nurse or someone could get by.
Michael was very good about getting up, also. He, with assistance, could get up to go to the bathroom. And I walked up and down the hall with him twice. He doesn't need any help, really, but his pre-operation dizziness seems to be gone, replaced by a little double-vision dizziness. They want him to go slowly and they don't want him to cover either eye; however, he tore off down the hall anyway, pushing his IV ahead of him. He's so eager to work through this temporary (we hope) side effect.
He doesn't have much appetite, but has taken a couple bites of anything they put in front of him. I left him tonight with a banana that he can open for a late night snack if he wants it. We watched Survivor before I had to leave to catch one of the final shuttles back to Family House.
9:00 EST
Our latest hopes for a timetable include being released tomorrow, having his nose packing removed on Tuesday and then being able to head home 48 hours afterwards. That's a best case scenario according to Dr. Wang, who claimed Michael is doing better at this point than most people who have the same operation. But Dr. Gardner hasn't budged on his statement that he needs to stay a full two weeks, which means celebrating Christmas in Pittsburgh.
All in all, everyone is pleased with how it's going. It's my hope that we soon return to days with no blogs because we're back to sightseeing rather than hospital-sitting.
CORRECTION: On Monday, I mistakenly wrote that PACU stood for Patient Anesthesiology Care Unit. Lest you think I use this format to spread false information, I must correct that to say it stands for Post-Anesthesiology Care Unit.
No comments:
Post a Comment