Saturday, October 18, 2008

Steven's Surgery Update

So the surgery went well. We had to check into the hospital about 10:30 a.m. He had already been up all night pacing and of course if he is up he had to make sure I was too. So I woke up with a migraine. What a way to start a busy day! He finally got into surgery at about 2:00 p.m. He was very very very nervous and scared. He had never had surgery before, so this was a whole new experience for him. He was in surgery for just over 2 hours. The surgeon told me it went very well and that he is to do NOTHING for the next week. Ok, I now believe my job for the next week is harder than hers. They sent him home around 6:00 p.m. and he was starving since he had not eaten since midnight the night before. The ride home was uneventful since the nerve block was still holding pretty well. It finally started to wear off around 11:00 p.m. (just as I ready to fall asleep) and he was miserable. So I held on to his pain meds and kept track of what he took when. At 3:00 a.m. He swore that he was going to die from the pain. So he called the hospital and they told him to come in. I was in no shape to drive since I had only slept maybe 2 hours in the last 48 and had taken meds for my migraine. So we tried other things.

They sent him home with a cyro cuff. Now this is a fabulous invention!!! It comes with a cooler that you fill with ice water. You connect the cooler to the tube on the cuff, raise it up and it fills the cuff. You lower it and it will drain. So we kept cycling the water for a couple of hours every 10-20 minutes all night. It did help and I got to close my eyes every few minutes (not usually by choice).

This is picture of the cyro cuff. It is not a picture of him. I found it on a google search. There is no way he can look this good at this time, plus he also has to wear this special sling (again not him, he cannot get a shirt on yet so I WILL NOT post a picture). This will just give you an idea of the contraption he is in. The cyro over the sling since he cannot take off the sling until his appointment next week.

I do have pictures of the before and after of the inside of his arm if you are interested and have a strong stomach. I even have a picture of the bone they cut off....

Well, it is time for his pain meds again so I better go dispense them! Have a great week and thank you for the prayers!

2 comments:

Casey said...

Hey, you can tell him I sympathize with him...it is painful (I had a similar surgery done in college-they cut off part of my collar bone). You never realize how much you use it until they cut part of it off)...very painful!! I had people tie my shoes and do my hair for weeks! Of course I had to stay over night in the hospital b/c I got sick from the anesthetics. But I'll be praying for a quick and less painful recovery!

Casey said...

Oh...and the sling looks much more comfortable than the one I had...it was a regular sling with a buckle to go around me to make sure it stayed stable! Oh technology... :)

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