A bit of a ramble

So much has happened and I haven't had a chance to say everything.

The first ramble bit is how is Mary? When she is awake, she is aware and its clear she is simply floating from the meds--the mind is solid, she knows where she is, asks questions, etc. She'll then nod off, sleep and pop awake. The nurse said this is fine, especially since the liver is trying to grow like crazy right now and other body parts are trying to heal. She has an oxygen feed up her nose, a catheter, an epidural block that really does stop the pain, and some Frankenstein like attachments in her neck that allowed the happy juice doc to get stuff into her in a hurry. There are multiple IV sites delivering Bupiacaine for the epidural, saline with potassium for her electrolytes, calcium glutinate, and Fentanyl (phentanyl?) is set up on the "on demand" tree. She has a pulse monitor on her finger and a happy juice self medication button in her left hand for the Fentanyl but she hasn't used that all day. Her incision starts just below her sternum, runs south for a short while and then turns to her right side just under the right rib. We have almost matching incisions although mine are almost 35 years old!

The worst part was this morning when I learned about the two units of whole blood sometime last night after I left. I was here until almost 1AM and arrived home about 1:15AM. Fortunately, our friend MaryR had fed the dogs about 6PM so they were just camped out and sleeping. It took a while for me to settle down to sleep so I decided to not set the alarm. I woke about 8AM, just a few minutes before the nurse arranged Mary's called.

Dr. Visser was very positive about the fact that blood was not needed during the surgery. So the need for blood after she was in her room was definitely not a good sign. I don't know what is suspected but I assume that since they didn't open up again right away, they feel it is under control. He did visit early this morning before I got here so I have not talked to him today. I expect he'll be doing rounds again later and I plan on being here.

I want to thank our friends Terry, MaryR, Marite and my long lost high school buddy Tom E who came and spent some time with me yesterday. Terry, especially, gets the gold star for bringing those great sandwiches from the Summit Grocery near her perch on top of the Santa Cruz mountains and for staying until 10PM-ish. MaryR gets a gold star from the dogs for their dinner--they told me personally how kibble with pumpkin is just more appetizing when MaryR serves it. And phone calls from Ute, Michele, Mary Ann and all the relatives (Tim, Lara, Chris, Dan, Daniel, Tom, Reenie, Maureen) were wonderful to get. Intellectually, I recognized the risk that Mary was under but emotionally I don't know what I would have done if the surgery had failed. Having contact and presence of everyone was and is most appreciated. Thank you.

MaryR recommended a service called "Gourmet Dreams" and their to go service so we signed up for deliveries of real food for me for this week. And, the first delivery occured without a hitch--except that at 1AM I was not interested in eating. Today I think I'll scoot home about 4PM and be back here by 7PM. That way I can eat, the dogs get fed and I should be able to catch Dr. Visser on his evening rounds.

As I have written elsewhere, this is a three step process. Step 1, the surgery, is done and apparently successful--pending this BP & transfusion issue. Step 2 when I left last night was "in the bag" but we now know it jumped out of the bag. This healing process has a number or risk steps and as Dr Visser said, Mary must concentrate on accomplishing each little thing that leads to healing. And, as Dr Visser said, we cannot even worry about Step 3 until we see enough progress on Step 2.

Mary is in a post-surgical unit in a double room. However, her current roommate is doing a wonderful imitation of Harvey the Pooka so Mary has a very quiet space--for now. And, she has a view of the secret garden but from the 4th floor. This is one of those buildings that has a ground floor and then floors 1, 2 and 3. Mary is on 3 which is the 4th floor. Live with it.