Sunday August 1, 2010

Queso (O.K. So...),

I'm playing "Catch up". Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, Friday... Nothing much happened friday. Visitors were limited because Christy over did it the day before. So.. here are some facts about the room...

Did you know it was exactly 20 feet from the couch to the door? There were 4 "red plugs" in the room. Those are the plugs that will still work if the power goes out. That happened 3 times during our stay. The bathroom door does not lock. It takes about 5 minutes to unplug everything so Christy can go to the bathroom. That was about every hour.

I did not mention in the blog that we had some drama on Thursday of our stay. So let me recap.

Wednesday (the day of surgery) when we got to our room, the power went out for an hour or so. The red plugs worked. When the power came on and everyone left, we tried to turn the T.V. on. It was fried, along with about 4 other televisions on our floor. This made Christy mad because she wanted to watch the Ranger game. She's the sports fan in this relationship. She made it very clear to the engineering people working on the T.V. that she had to have a T.V. in her room.

They could not get the T.V. working that night so they wheeled in an AV cart with a T.V. on it. This cart was pretty big and they put it at the foot of the bed she was in. We had to move it out of the way to get to the other side of her bed, each and every time.

Thursday morning the PCT (Patient Care Technician) came in to give Christy her sponge bath. Because of the morphine, Christy had a shy bladder. It was taking her a good 10 minutes to pee. The PCT left Christy on the toilet to take care of business. In the meantime, the PCT was trying to change the sheets on the bed for Christy. Christy was to let her (PCT) know when she was finished.

I was reading a book while the PCT was making the bed. The PCT was moving from one side of the bed to the other. While she was squeezing between the foot of the bed and the AV cart, where the TV was, she tripped and fell. OMG! Now, this little lady was in her 70's. It was like the commercial "I've fallen and I cant get up". I moved to assist her. I calmly told her to lay there and not to move, everything is gonna be all right. It knocked the wind out of her and she was really scared. Remember, Christy is still sitting on the toilet!

I pushed the nurse call button and let them know, PCT Down! The other nurses came in to assist the PCT. I went to check on Christy. She heard the whole commotion and told me she was fine. The Charge Nurse later came in and thanked me for helping out. She commented on me being so calm. I guess she didn't realize in all my years of Police work, I have seen far worse.

The PCT was fine and returned later that day. She was sore and felt like she got hit by a train. So that, combined with the 36 visitors we had that day wore Christy out. Friday was a cake walk compared to Thursday. Dr. Strock came in on Friday and changed her dressing. Christy looked at her new boobies for the first time. Dr. Strock told her they looked good, healing nicely. Christy thought they looked wierd with no nipples. The good thing was she didn't almost pass out as she did when she saw the incision from the Lymph Node biopsy.

We stayed Friday night and Saturday we were set to be released. Dr. Bussey came in to check on Christy on Saturday morning. She told Christy that she got the pathology report and confirmed that the cancer had not spread to the lymph nodes. The cancer was larger than first thought. Dr. Bussey said her cancer was classified as stage IIA. Christy was unphased, since it had been removed. Dr. Bussey asked Christy how she felt and if we had any questions. She then completed the discharge paperwork and we were out of the Hospital by 11:45.

Christy was given an muscle relaxer and two pain pills for the ride home. Christy slept part of the way home. She apologized for sleeping. WTH? She felt really good Saturday. I got her home and nestled her into the chair in the living room, while I unloaded the car. My mom and dad brought our daughter to us, she stayed with them while we were in the hospital. They stayed and helped my Aunt Stacy prepare dinner for us. Steak and potatoes, my favorite!

I stayed awake and watched T.V. while Christy slept. I was trying to wait until it was time to give her her muscle relaxer. Once that time arrived, I got her settled into bed. I slept in the bed with her and got the best sleep I have had in a week. I was a little nervous though, I must admit. I didn't want to roll over and try to put my arm around her like I always do. I did real good and stayed on my side of the bed. She woke me up at 7 to go to the bathroom. I took care of her and got back into bed and slept some more! Woohoo!

We are now up and sitting in the living room watching T.V.

Thank you to everyone who came to vistit us and who have signed up to bring us dinner for the next 4 weeks! We are truly greatful to be so loved.

Until next time

Pinkston out.