The Morning Report

Nancy had a restful night–as restful as being woken every hour can be.  A shout-out to her nurse, Amira, who was extremely capable and attentive.  Nancy did snooze very soundly when she was able. The combination of Norco and more Norco seemed to diminish her headache, although it’s not completely gone.  The pain is still there and is being managed by the Norco also.  This morning a bit of muscle tightness and tenderness in the stomach area reared its ugly head and has taken the forefront in the battle for attention.  While Nancy hasn’t actually called it pain, I think that may be the best word for it, and she did say it was a new sensation that came up today.  I bet the other stuff has diminished enough that this now gets to grab her attention.  She has bruising around the hip to hip “free tummy tuck” incision and Jennifer, Dr. Spiegel’s PA, says that they did have to work hard with her muscle layer there as well as on her chest wall so this is to be expected.  She has been given Flexeril (a muscle relaxer) to help with this and the added benefit is that it makes you VEEEERRRYYY sleepy.  So, even though at 5:15 AM, Nancy was confident that she was up for the day and we did the teeth brushing and face washing that comes with a new day, she was within minutes back to sawing logs.  Good Girl!  She has been dreaming out loud and woke asking me, “Is that due tomorrow?”  You can take the Mom out of the home but you can’t take the Home out of the Mom!

The fever is no longer an issue.  Nancy did a great job with her breathing exercises and coughing so those nurses must have been right about the phlegm.

Today is a going to be a busy day.  It started with a flurry of people in and out at shift change.  Dr. Spiegel specifically trains the nursing staff that takes care of her patients so there is only a handful of nurses who are qualified to be Nancy’s caregivers.  Her new nurse is Karina. There are promises of getting rid of her IV and a few other constant companions since she’s had the surgery.  Once that is done, she will get a shower and be expected to walk the halls at least 3 times today.  Nancy is looking forward to that since the compression stockings can be taken off during this time.

Mr. Morphine Pump has become just an extra appendage.  Nancy last summoned his prowess on yesterday’s second and final “sitting trial.”  She’s planning to shed him when she sheds the other hangers on.

It’s going to be a good day.  The staff is quite certain that the shower and ambulation will bring strong feelings of rejuvenation.  It has been mentioned twice already that she may be ready to be discharged tomorrow.  We’ll see how she feels later today and as Laura mentioned when she popped in for a quick Hi this morning, “Knowing Nancy, it might be better for her to stay until Sunday, just to keep her from doing too much.”  Yep, Laura, you are probably right about that!

We’ll keep you posted.