Just a fog of pain and medication over the last 48 hours. I am starting to come out of it a little bit and using less of the Oxy and therefore less of the Colace, which is a stool softener used because the Oxy really plugs you up. I gave out a whoop today when I finally had a moment of silent contemplation in the rest room after three days.
I did not sleep particularly well the night before surgery as I tossed and turned in contemplation of the process ahead. I had a colonoscopy a few years ago and that is as close as I've come to an operating room. It was raining as we packed up and headed off to the surgery center on Friday morning. Darla, being the sweet wife that she is, complained that I had a bit of halitosis (I hadn't eaten anything since nine the night before and it was 11 AM). She gave me a Trident gum which almost blew the whole procedure. I checked in, signed my life away and was escorted back to pre op about 11:30. There the nurse freaked out about my gum and called the anesthesiologist, Dr. Cook to see if we could proceed. I blamed the whole thing on Darla. He asked how long I'd been chewing the gum (1/2 hour) and if I had eaten or had anything to drink since midnight. Nope. They proceeded to shave my chest and my right underarm. Yeah, I'm looking forward to how this will look on the cruise. Darla came in and they started the IV in my left hand and we met with Dr. Tweet, my surgeon. Apparently the surgery would be in Surgery Room D. So, TweetleDee as I put it. He said he hadn't heard that one. Dr Cook came in and offered me a nerve block on my right chest. Dr Tweet advised to have it, but as Cook went through all of "punctured lung, bile trapped in injection site, possible death" I had pause to rethink, but decided on the block.
They brought me in to the surgery suite and covered me in cheesecloth, including over my head. Dr. Cook worked on the injection site for the block as I had trouble breathing. I asked if he was going to put me out, but he had to do the block to make sure I didn't have any side effects. He finally finished, was satisfied with my reaction and told me "bye,bye, Mr. Lyon, see you in recovery" and I was gone.
I woke up in Recovery and you can see the picture from pre-op with the "thumbs up" and then the picture in recovery where I am "altered" as they put it. Darla told me that I kept telling the nurse that I like soft stools. I don't know why and I'm not sure that I believe her. I came out of surgery with a sling and a bag of ice on the surgery site. I actually have several steri strips over the surgery holes and a large shoulder cup over my shoulder and held down with surgical tape. This will be short as it is hard to type and my shoulder and neck are sore leaning over the laptop. The first day was actually pretty good, although Darla left and went to a party that night. I was pretty sleepy and slept off and on and got the Oxy going before the block wore off. I think I watched some TV and slept in the recliner in the living room. The doctor had suggested that I should sleep in the recliner over night, but I wanted to be in my bed and sort of built up some pillows to help support my brace and sling.
Darla got home about 11 and we went to bed and slept in yesterday. David got tickets to the Disney on ice program at the Golden One Center in Sacramento and he offered to take Luke and Darla to the event. The seats were in his company's box at the arena. My nurse was kind of sleeping on the job and David got to our place with Luke about 5 and they were off to the show by six.
I watched some television and slept off and on, still hitting the Oxy and Colace in equal portions. I got a text about 9 that Darla's car would not start in the garage and the garage would not allow AAA in as they were only allowing cars out. David got someone to give her a jump and they got it going and back home by about ten.
Darla was up early this morning and played with Luke while I rested in bed. I cannot get the dressing wet for the fist two nights so have been showering with a trash bag over my right arm and tied to my neck. I'm not one that likes to go even a day without bathing and washing my hair. Tomorrow, I will lose the dressing and cover the surgical entries with bandages.
Darla needed to take her car into Firestone today and had me driving over to pick her up. I'm not supposed to drive for about 4 weeks. Her car will be tested and if we need a new alternator or battery, so be it.
My best guess is that I will be down for about six months of no golf, but that time frame could improve depending on my therapy. I will see the Doctor again on March 1st and then we are off to our cruise on March 11th.
Well, that's it. This wore me out more than I thought it would. I hope you are all well and I look forward to seeing the Lyon contingent and the Nowakowski's in three weeks, eh? Ciao.
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