We checked in 10 minutes early this morning (at 10:20). We were taken back into Short Stay pretty quickly. We were told yesterday that she’d be taken back for surgery at 12:30. I was able to stay with her until they took her at 12:09. Getting to wait with her minimized both her boredom and my stress.
The *actual* surgery started about 2:30 and they paged me to go to the consult room to talk to Dr. Greene at 2:42.
He said everything went fine. They put the needle in with guides (x-ray and fluoroscopy, I believe). They took her to X-ray to make sure she didn’t have a collapsed lung (nope!).
The dressing can come off tomorrow and she can shower tomorrow without covering it. Discharge paperwork suggests covering it so it doesn’t rub against her shirt, at least for the next 10-14 days. It is on her right side. This is what she wanted since between the two of us, she usually drives, and this way it won’t be in her primary driving arm, or under the driver side seat belt.
She had dilaudid prior to surgery, and, from my understanding, twilight sleep anesthesia, but she only remembers part of pre-op. She woke-up quickly (which is an upside of twilight sleep vs full sleep) and was wide awake when Sara and I went back to see her.
I was told I’d be able to get her CBC and X-ray results from 10/6. This involved going to Medical Records. One of the few places we haven’t had nice people to deal with. The main woman wasn’t friendly to start with and became distinctly more so when I said Teresa is my wife. (We haven’t had any problems otherwise.)
Eventually I did get them. Her hemoglobin is still just over 11. Just about every CBC I get displays the results differently though, so I need to compare this one to others to have a better idea, but overall, I think her numbers are improving.
As for the X-ray, “Significant improvement with near complete resolution of bibasilar infiltrates and pleural effusions”! We were pretty sure though that the X-rays would show an improvement, because she can take deep breaths without any pain now. And on the incentive spirometer, she is regularly hitting between 1700 and 2500, and usually closer to 2200 for the bottom number. (2500 is as high as it goes.)
She did not get any pain medicine after and they did not prescribe a pain medicine. She had 3 200mg ibuprofen about 2 hours ago, but that’s it. She’s sore where the port is (and surrounding area) but doing well and is in good spirits.