Discharged

We had anticipated Dana's discharge today but were concerned about the rash she developed on her back. We still don't have a definitive answer but we are down to two scenarios. 1, It was told to us that sometimes in surgery a pad will be placed near the incision site on the back in this case, attached by glue on the whole surface. This pad is then pulled to keep the skin tight around the incision. 2, Tap that holds the drapes in place. Kinda funny to me that we have talked to three people in that surgery room, one being the surgeon and non of them can recall which it was. We are to the point that we figure Dana has a sensitivity to the glue.
One nurse explained that sometimes where skin gets pulled or stretched can open up the skin enough to allow the glue into the skin and cause irritation.
Interesting thing is, the leads they glue to the chest on some of the sites have caused a similar affect but only on the outside edge of those pads. She has square red borders on some of those sites. I do not believe she is sensitive to latex because everyone touched her with latex gloves on may parts of her body and no problem. Other areas like her IV were covered with clear flexible tape but no redness. The area around her incision had tape but no marks. In this case I saw the covering on the incision removed and replaced 5 times before they changed it but no redness. That had to cause some pulling on the skin even more so than the other sites. Why no rash there? Well some day well will get to the bottom of this dilemma but since the rash is not spreading the doctors are not concerned enough to investigate further. Just keep an eye on it they say.

So the story of the discharge. This morning the PA came in looked at Dana's back, incision and asked a few questions. She said Dana was ready to go home and after the surgeon came by after two surgery's, he would discharge her. He showed up just after 12:00 and gave us the green light to go home today. Shortly after, the nurse came by to take vitals and let us know that she had one other patient do discharge before she could work on Dana's paperwork. I'll be back in one hour she said as she rolled her blood pressure machine out the door. She returned about two, went over the orders, gave us prescriptions and said a wheelchair would arrive to take us down shortly. Up to this point we had been extremely patience with delays. Dana had been up and out of the bed for the longest period of time since her stay, from 10:00am till 2:30pm. She had visited with 5 visitors and was tired before that from the longest and fastest walk we had taken so far. The wait seemd forever for her and she wanted to lay back down to rest but if she had they would have been right there getting her right back up. As it turned out, whe could have layed down for 45 minutes and taken a nap.
I believe that if the attendant had not showed up when she did, Dana was going to find alternative ways to escape from that room. The stairs were close to her room and I could just envision her taking flight down three floors and walking right out. She could have walked it because everything is working so much better and besides, she had just finished walking further than that this morning. She used to lag behind me when we walked but this time I was not having to slow down much at all.

The trip home was good except for the bridge on the turnpike just north of 39th street. I would like to get a hold of the engineer who designed the sections of that bridge. There are 19 of them and it is like a low level roller coaster. I slowed down to 50mph and the car still bounced as it crossed each section of that bridge. Looked over at Dana expecting to see a life size bobble head sitting next to me. If you have traveled that section you know what I'm talking about. It's almost as bad as I-40 between Morgan road and El Reno.

So we get home and settling in but Dana is watching TV and getting up and down like I have not seen in years. I'm doing some chores and she gets into bed and falls asleep almost as her head hits the pillow. It's great to see her in her favorite bed, a safe and warm place to be. I personally think she way over did it today, we will find out later tonight or tomorrow. She is a trouper.

I need to add two additional benefits we see from surgery. 1, no more chronic coughing and 2, no choking while sleeping or eating. Not that she has had a lot of sleep but not once during her short spurts has she choked. Oh by the way, she slept from about 11:00pm last night till 5:00am this morning. The most sleep she has had since I can remember. Hopefully she can get a full nights sleep tonight so she can get up and start cleaning our house, it's her most favorite thing to do...LOL Just kidding, oh stop it, she really hates it. No I will be gladly handling the cleaning until she is able and then I will still help even when she tells me that I don't have to. The way she was running around the house today, I'm gonna have to keep an eye on her and hold her back. She really does have a new lease on mobility and I'm thinking she is gonna want to do all the things she had a hard time doing before. Well not cleaning but all the other things.

Well after Dana fells up to reading everything I have told about her journey so far I fear she will ban me from this blog so this may be my last. I hope not because while I have had some time away from work I have actually enjoyed writing about this experience we have gone through. I must confess that I do not write much and am not good at it but I have enjoyed sharing with you. It will be interesting what she has to say about what she recalls when she feels like sharing with you. As clear as she is now, she may remember the events of the past five days. So far, everything we have talked about has been spot on. Oh, I need to let you know that we have re connected in conversation also, she is so easy to talk to now. This surgery has been so good for us in so many ways. Such a blessing from God to be bestowed on us at this time in our lives. If you knew Dana before, you will see a new woman in so many ways when you see her again.

I'm feeling the affects of lack of sleep and adrenalin drop off so I'm going to close for this day with the hopes I will get to share more as time passes. I would just like to say this; thank you all for the love and support, prayers and thoughts you have shown our family as we have gone through this. We are truly blessed to have such good friends.

Wes