Houston, We Have Lift Off!

ZEE GAS HAS BEEN PASSED! Sit down with a cup of joe....this is a long one.

Mom's fart was born at 4:20 this morning, less than one ounce, not very long, and with her eyes. It was beautiful.

Not that that was the highlight of her night or anything. Since she arrived to the floor, she's had the most lovely roommate named Mary Ann. I never thought to tell mom how good she had it, but boy did she. This woman was nice, quiet, had a lovely family, wore adorable bathrobes, made for nice conversation, etc. Then she was discharged yesterday afternoon and Mom's new roommate arrived- what we nurses call a "Friday Night Special." Who knows if she was post-op and hallucinating, coming down from some serious nose sugar, or just liked the sauce a LOT, but she was no fun as a roommate. She was chanting, crying, complaining of back pain- and that divider curtain doesn't do much for sound control. Then she pissed the bed. Then she shit the bed. And that divider curtain doesn't do much for smell control either.

Speaking from experience, sometimes a room change isn't an option. When you're in a hospital, you run the risk of having a bad roommate, and it's not a hotel so you just have to deal with it. Mom has really taken my lectures on self-advocacy to heart and advocated her little self out of that room STAT.

Pain continued to be an issue, and she says that when she uses her nurse call light, sometimes people don't come, or don't come quickly enough. It's hard to tell, because she drifts in and out of sleep so easily that less time might pass than she thinks, or maybe they came by and she was asleep so assumed all was well.

This morning her catheter was filled with clots, and so urine takes the path of least resistance, and went around the catheter. I guess what goes around comes around, cause she pissed the bed too.

*Disclaimer: Mom, you can't be mad at me for sharing all these details because this is meant to be informative and a learning tool because chances are someone else might have to go through something similar and it's important to know the ins and outs of recovery.*

As you can imagine, she didn't care for that too much. She called the house this morning and told Coco to let me sleep, but Coco ripped out of the driveway like a bat out of hell and I woke up. So I just called the floor, laid in to the nurse as only we nurses can, and made sure the situation is all set. She was very nice, informed me that the catheter had been irrigated and is working just fine, that mom received a real breakfast tray this morning, and is ON THE JOHN! WOO HOO!

I can't even being to express what an exciting thing this is- analgesia, narcotics, immobility, surgery, all these things are HUGELY constipating, especially when put together. This is by far, the number one biggest accomplishment post-operatively. Who knows how things developed, but even the urge is an excellent sign.

*Mom: See disclaimer above.*

The take home message is that if you are ever going in for day surgery where you will be sedated, pop a Colace daily two days before, and keep it up in the days after to make sure things keep moving. It's a stool softener, and constipation is one of the most painful things someone can experience post-operatively.

So today is off to an exciting start, and I'm sure she'll need to rest rest rest for the better part of the day. I will see her one more time on my way back to Boston. You see, I have exams all next week, and graduation Friday, so I have to get back to an environment where I'll actually get some work done. Originally, we'd thought mom would be out Wednesday or Thursday, so I'd be able to help her at home, but her A Team captain Coco will be here all weekend, and then teammate and mom's aunt Didi will be here till I return after graduation.

I'll continue to get updates from them and blog away thought :)