Hi all,
Unfortunately, my rubbish PDA just deleted today's post halfway through writing it (time to buy an iPhone methinks!), so here we go again ...
All is good so far today. I missed half of Shameless last night (no worries, I have it at home on Sky+ :) when they took me down for my chest X-Ray to check the aftermath of removing the chest drain. I've not had any feedback so far, so I guess it was all ok!
Cannula (I've finally learned how to spell that, along with "Catheter") was proving to be a problem last night. Whenever anything was put through it, my right forearm ballooned which wasn't good. The doctor was called at 11.30pm to put yet another one in, but he didn't turn up until 4am, and by then it didn't seem worth it as I was going onto oral drugs today. I slept well until 4 and they gave me some soluble paracetemol then which helped stabilise the pain, so I figured I could do without the morphine for the rest of the night.
What that means, is when they disconnected my feed tube for the next 8-hour rest period at 10am this morning, I was finally free of any connections (for a while at least).
I've had an unencumbered swagger around the unit this morning which was good, and a really good wash - so much easier without wires - and I'm finally able to wear pyjamas instead of a hospital gown, so I feel much more normal.
I've been drinking cups of coffee and orange juice all day with no side effects yet, so hopefully I'm on track for basic sloppy foods tomorrow. Until then I will be back on my liquid feed at 6pm tonight and overnight.
I'm on regular soluble paracetemol now, and have a menu of painkillers to choose from in the gaps - Tramadol, Codeine, and in exceptional cases, Morphine again (by injection). so far I've had a couple of Tramadol and they are working well.
have to go now, Physio want me to do some stairs!
Cheers
Colin
p.s. I just went down and back up three small flights of stairs (probably 30 in all). All went well, but I have a bit of a sweat on now and am taking a good breather - physio was very impressed though, most people stop after one or two flights apparently!
Wednesday 18 February 2009
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4 comments:
Great progress Colin and impressive too with the stairs too.
From my experience of Tramadol and other pokey pain killers I would recommend plenty of orange juice (with the bits in) plus an extra dose of all bran.
I'll say no more otherwise I'll get a reputation for toilet humour.
Carefull iphones have unique(!) functionality too.
'til tomorrow
Hi Colin, We are still checking your progress daily and it sounds as though your doing fab, and that diet sounds great to me too by the way, im sure you'll stick to it with ease! Keep up the good work,
Love Kate, Daz, and Kids x
Hi Col it's great to hear that you are making such fantastic progress postoperatively. I have to say I am very impressed with the "stair thing" especially as its only a week or so since your op. I must concure with Jeremy B regarding the pain killers but now that you are on free fluids the unwanted effects should be minimized. Keep up the good work, spirit and attitude. Julie Willson xx
Remember who you work for Col, can't be the PDA's fault, must be that pesky Windows Mobile OS...
Great to hear that you are still making such great process.
Andy T
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Sent from my Apple iPod Touch
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