A Good Day

I got to her room about the same time the patient did, I'd say about 1:15 PM or so.  Her very nice nurse, Danielle, explained how everything in the room works and made sure all instrumentation and the IV were properly applied and working.  Visiting hours, she explained, were any time during the day, but at 9:00 PM, the front doors were locked.  When the patient is hungry, she should call the food service and order what she wants (they’ll give her a menu each day), and they’ll bring it within 30 minutes.  Danielle explained how the pain medication equipment works and that a physical therapist would stop by later in the day to try to get her out of bed to take a few steps.

The patient dozed on and off, ordered from the liquid diet on her menu and ate some of it, and  watched some TV.   We had visitors and phone calls from children, Barbara, Lauren, Ally, and Ryan stopped in for a nice visit.  Ally made a very nice get–well card, like a mini-poster, which she gave to the patient!  Tom stopped in and we had a nice visit with him.  We also had visitors from the Cathedral, Fr. John and Kimberly Jennings, who stopped in for a nice visit and chat. 

The physical therapist arrived late in the afternoon, and did a wonderful job of helping the patient prepare to get out of bed by disengaging monitoring and other equipment, then helping her to get out and stand while holding on to a walker.  She took several steps forward and then several steps backward.  Back in bed after that, the PT helped her perform some very light exercises with both legs.  The patient did very well.

There are restrictions: no sitting up at a ninety degree angle, no rotating your feet towards each other, and one more that I can’t think of at the moment.  I think in time, these restrictions will be almost second nature.  After the PT left and we watched a little TV, I left.  When I did, around 7:45 PM, the patient still had not felt any post-op pain. 

I am amazed at how much of a difference I’ve seen so far, and I only hope that it continues in the same manner.  Many people were praying for successful surgery and recovery.  These prayers have been answered. 

Today was a good day indeed!!

(Incidentally, the times of each post are Pacific Time Zone times; "the Google Time Zone," I guess)