Surgery Recovery, Day 3

I've been moved to room 740 in the Cancer Tower at Portland Providence.  Exit 3 off of I-84 then head back west on Glisan to 47th.  The easy access is from 47th, just south if I-84.

I am alert enough to sit at a computer and type in my blog for a while.  The picture that Caroline posted yesterday shows Dr. Christy Dunst, my primary surgeon, and Dr. Radu Peskaro who is a fellow under Dr. Dunst's tutelage.  He can write orders.   He came by this morning and said it is time to get onto the feeding tube.  We begin with 15 ml /hour.  If everything goes well, it will ramp up over time to 100ml/hour.  So far, the only "feeding" I've had is from saline IV's.

I took a walk last night around 12:30a when I woke up with a headache and was feeling kind of lousy.  That walk was very short, after about 40 feet we turned around and came back.  I felt worse.  This morning at 8:00a I walked around a loop that might have been 60-80 yards total.  I'm feeling better and planning on doing that again in about 20 minutes.  Then a sponge bath.  Then I'll get back in bed and hope that I haven't over done it.  I know that if I've done too much I'll feel bad.  On the other hand, when a slow walk of 80 yards is overdoing it you realize how much much further you have to go.

The doctors have thankfully removed a lot of tubes that were connected when I came out of ICU.  There was a tube through my nose into my stomach to suction out any stomach contents.  That really irritated my throat, which was incredibly sore for two additional reasons: (1) the breathing tube and ventilator and (2) the main incision through which the operation was performed was high up on my throat.   Here is the incision in my throat, you may have to blow it up:

They removed the bladder catheter.  They like to remove those as soon as possible because they are primary source of infection.  I was under anesthesia when they put it in.  It felt really weird coming out like it kind of hurt, but when it was out I felt fine.  I was very nervous about the first time I urinated without the catheter, but had no burning.  Since it is difficult for me to get in and out of bed, they give me a "urinal" (which is kind of like an empty plastic milk bottle) which I use while in bed.  Guys have it a lot easier then girls.

They removed two IVs from my right wrist, one was arterial. I'm getting all IV stuff through the one in my neck, which everyone refers to as "a main line".

Finally they gave me this breath quantity measuring device to help me improve my lung capacity.  As I breath in, beyond a certain point it really hurts, due to the surgery.  Here's a picture: