I realize for anyone who's still reading, I kind of left this at a cliffhanger. It wasn't my intention, but I wanted to get through today.

The surgery was successful, according to the doctor. He was able to open the urethra properly. James had no trouble during the surgery, either with the surgery itself or with his other health problems. He didn't need extra rousing from the anesthesia due to the sleep apnea and had very little pain in the hospital, even though they expected it. (Actually, it was after we got home that he had to start taking something for the pain.) He had no reaction to anesthesia at all, and was ravenous by the time the nurses realized he wasn't going to have any post-operative vomiting and they could quit the liquid diet.

The only problem that turned up was about 7:30 p.m., when he told me he was having some chest tightness. I called the nurse and everyone arrived. They took blood, an EKG, people examined him—and thankfully all the tests came up negative, even all the followup blood tests they took throughout the night. It was nothing to do with his heart; they believe it was just the stress of the surgery. Even though no flesh was actually cut into (surface skin), it was still stressful to his body. Instead of going home to sleep I went home and walked Tucker, put the animals to bed, and came back to sleep there. Well, not really sleep, because something kept beeping until they finally turned it off.

Everyone signed off on his release in the morning and we came home on Friday afternoon and spent a nice quiet day at home. They did not say he couldn't go out, just that he not lift anything or exert himself, so Saturday we headed for the Hallmark store at Cumberland Mall so James could pick up the Army truck. Surprise! Cumberland Mall doesn't have a Hallmark store anymore. Another non-clothes and shoes store gone. Really no use in going there any longer.

So we had to go up to Amy's Hallmark at Town Center and got it there, I picked up something we needed at Publix, and then we went to Barnes & Noble and I guess I got a little crazy with postop relief. We had a coupon, so I bought a stack of paperbacks in a series, a book about making a living via nerdy pursuits, and The Spellbook of Katrina Von Tassel, which looked like good Hallowe'en reading, plus two magazines. Sunday we did our usual shopping, and Monday it was back to work for him, at least in telework fashion. He is still off the Brilinta until the urologist says it's safe for him, so I don't want him being in the office while he is off that med. He is still showing signs of tiny amounts of blood in his urine, so we're not sure when that will happen.

Today was James' appointment to get the surgical foley catheter removed. This thing has been a pain in the neck; we couldn't use a Statlock all week because the catheter was too short.

Anyway, ideally once the catheter was pulled, if the surgery was successful, and liquid was introduced into his bladder, James should have been able to pass his own water. To my sorrow that did not happen. We do know the passage is clear for liquid to pass. However, we could not get the full amount to void. There may be reasons for this. We are hoping it is because it is so soon after surgery that his prostate is still swollen—that is the source of his pain at the moment—and the surgical brochure said it could take four to six weeks for swelling to go down. However, James has been on a foley for six months. His body may have forgotten the signals needed to relax enough to cause him to void. This I don't know what we can do about it.

So the nurse who ran the test consulted the doctor, and he advised to put another foley catheter back in. We will actually see the doctor again in two weeks, and I think he gets to try it again.

James said he sort of expected it. He thought it was too soon for it to have healed, especially as there was still blood tinges, and he was philosophical about having a new foley put in. But I fell into a funk for the rest of the day and made him a bit down as well. I'm sorry to have brought him low. He was accepting it with fortitude and I was just being Debbie Downer. But I want so badly for him to be better. I thought if we could get that back to normal we could work on the other things, but at the moment we are just in a holding pattern. I feel so sad and frustrated when he is in pain and I can't help him.

Labels: events, health, sickness

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:55:00 PM

Comments: Post a Comment