I slept pretty good last night. You always have the interruptions of the attendants coming to get your vitals but I was so tired I would fall right back asleep afterwards. I iced all night and made sure I had ice all day.
I was so nervous I would not make my goal of going to the bathroom at 6am since the catheter was out. It was down to the wire. I got up and went to the bathroom myself without calling anyone because I wanted privacy. Phil got mad when I told him, but he wasn't there to stop me. I sat down and gave myself a pep talk. As weird as it is, it almost feels like you have to learn how to go to the bathroom again. And I went, yay! Otherwise they would have given me a straight catheter and I was way too scared to do that.
My Dr. Came in very early, around 730 am. He checked my wounds and said my bite was still perfect. He took the tube out of my nose which made me feel a lot better. He put down a towel and quickly pulled it out. It was such a weird feeling but over so quick. A bunch of blood flew out, hence the towel. They confirmed that they did not change the orders about the catheter and apologized about the nurse.
The Nurses keep trying to give me the suction tool for my mouth, but honestly my mouth doesn't have much in it. I get a little drooly, and use baby wipes to keep that at bay, but I don't have a bunch of blood or anything in my mouth.
My nose was congested so I took advantage of one of my days I could use Afrin. It felt so good!
My favorite attendant was on staff today and she forced me to change my gown and linens. I was so tired yesterday I didn't want to, but she said today I had to. She brought me some warm baby wipes and helped me clean myself. I felt so good afterwards!!
This is the setup that I came up with. There are four trays and syringes here, and I have a fifth one not pictured. One is for water, one for Gatorade, one for broth, and one for my ibuprofen. It works really well. The trays work really nice to catch the dribbles. I am back to using the Peridex mouthwash. I was concerned how I would do this because I really did not want to swish it around for fear of moving my jaw. My nurse told me to just turn my head back and forth to let it naturally move around. I was not able to do it for the 30-40 recommended seconds. I could tolerate it for about 10 seconds, but that was better than nothing.
I had quite the appetite again today. I switched it up and had beef broth, two helpings again for breakfast. I got the lemon ice as well, and it always feels so nice to have the cold in my mouth. I have to let it melt quite a bit because it is hard eating it frozen. Eating with a spoon is still a little bit of a challenge.
The resident came to visit me again that night and thought my face looked red. He asked if I was itchy and I was. I didn't really think anything of it but my legs were really itchy all day. He thought it was a reaction to the morphine, so he said he was going to take me off of it. He switched me to the liquid hydrocodone that I would be taking at home.
My body did not like the change. I got really irritated and tired. I had friends that were supposed to come and Phil almost cancelled. Thankfully they wanted to show up anyway :).
My friends came and brought me flowers, it was so sweet of them. It really brought up my spirits to see them. You can see how red my cheeks are in the picture.
After my friends left, my favorite attendant came back. She asked if I wanted to walk, and I definitely was up for it. I was supposed to be walking 2-3 times a day, but instead I was just taking myself to the bathroom instead of calling and counting that :). We walked around the halls 3 times, and it felt so good. I saw my Dr.'s partner Dr. In the hall checking on one of his patients, and I said hi and he told me he recognized my drains.
After the walk, the attendant sat with me and we talked. Well, she talked and I wrote down notes back. We both lost our Moms five years ago, so we shared a bond. It was so nice to have some social interaction. She is off tomorrow and so she gave me a hug goodbye. I love all the Nurses and attendants at the hospital, they treat you like family.
My Day 1 was deleted and I could not recover it! Here is my recreation to the best of my ability!
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