Recovering

I am at home slowly recovering. Things are going alright with a few minor hiccups...pun intended. I had the hiccups last night twice, each for about 10 minutes. It hurt so bad that it finally stopped being sharp pain and became a constant burn in my chest. Hiccups are definitely worse that sneezes and coughs. I am sleeping okay, but having a hard time getting comfortable given where my incision site is located. It is located mostly on my upper left back down across my back under my arm. Kimberly will help me remove my dressing from my drainage tube site tonight. Once this is removed it will need to be left uncovered. The incision site is closed with glue and tape which will come off slowly with each shower. Once we remove my dressing today I can take a light shower. I have only had a sponge bath once since last Wednesday so this will be really nice. Breathing is strange at times. It still hurts to take deep breaths and sometimes I have to slow down and catch my breath. But besides the pain, everything seems the same. Of course, I have yet to really exert myself and I am sure that this would do a number on me right now. I will give that time and see how my body adjusts.

Overall, pain management has been the issue on this go around. I am okay at home, but for awhile at the hospital that was a real issue. I originally received an epidural on the morning of surgery. This was really nice and worked well leading into the OR. I did not feel anything from my neck down to my abdomen. This is the main form of pain management for people undergoing thoracic surgery. On the way from the surgery table to to gurney to transport me to recovery I lost my epidural in an accident. Not sure what happened, but I was not too upset about it. Shit happens! The problem was that they could not redo one. It is a one shot deal prior to surgery. With an epidural, throughout my stay at the hospital if I got pain I could send medicine through and numb my nerves and kill the pain. Since I lost it that meant they changed my pain management plan. I was put on oral pain meds for long lasting pain management and dilaudid for breakthrough pain. My first daytime nurse did not seem to understand this. She kept telling me to use my button, which would only last about twenty minutes and then I was hurting again. When I asked for oral meds she would tell me to use my button which is stronger medicine. This is true, but the medicine she was telling me to use was short term and wore off so quickly. Anyway, after trying to get things across to the nurse with little success I was serendipitously visited by the social worker who I explained things to. She mentioned that the nurse needed to change her attitude around and also noted some things that the nurse did that were against protocol and really dangerous (for one, giving Kimberly my meds at the desk to take to me). I was then visited by the charge nurse and a patient advocate from the hospital. Long story short, this was not my best stay at the hospital. Not the worst, but I guess they cannot all be great! I still have high marks for UAB.

In conclusion, thanks to everyone who has continued to pray for my recovery and well-being. I am on the mend again and hopefully will be back on my feet in a few weeks.

Peace,
Josh