Latest Trip to the Hospital

I'm home, at the desktop, and with a somewhat longer attention span, so I'll try to do justice to the last two weeks.  We arrived at the hospital around 10 on the 20th.  I drove just because I could.  There was no place to park by the surgery center, so Elaine and I went to check in while Glenn parked the car.  I was shown to a cubicle and changed into a paper gown.  Vitals were taken and I settled in for an anxious wait.  I met with the anesthesiologist--same one who did my surgery in 08, so she knew what she was getting in for.  She wanted to put in an epidural.  They tried that in 08 but ran into my back surgery.  So armed, she knew where to put it this time.  She said it helped in the post op recovery. Good.  I met with my surgeon.  Surgery was late which didn't help with the anxiety level.  Finally, they came to get me.  I said good by to the kids and was wheeled to the OR.  Now the fun begins.  I have dreadful veins.  They are small, hidden, and they roll.  That's why I got the port.  Still, the anesthesiologist wanted another IV.  Tried the left arm.  Tried the right arm.  OK, so we'll use the port.  The surgeon, who put it in, tried to access it--couldn't get good aspiration.  So the anesthesiologist got serious and put a central line into my jugular vein in my neck.  That's all I remember till waking up in the PACU.  OK, I survived.  I hadn't been all that sure.
After the requisite PACU time, I was taken to my room on the 7th floor.  I have now sampled six of the rooms there.  I had a private room, always a plus.  There was a window looking out to the west, but it was so high that all I saw out of it most of the time was sky.  Glenn and Elaine arrived with all my toys and the news that the surgeon got all the cancer--at least all they could see this time around--and that things were looking good.  That's good.  Cassandra, the night nurse, was able to access my port and move the IV there.  My surgeon was jealous--though he did say that they flushed it several times during surgery and that may have opened things up.  I was still pretty dopey, so I managed to sleep.  Friday was a different matter.  I was really hurting.  Staying on top of the pain was just not going to happen.  I did manage to be gotten out of bed and into a chair for a while, and even walked, with a walker, the RN and CNA passed the elevator lobby to the nurses' station and back.  After needing breakthrough pain meds every half hour, the evening nurse got the on call anesthesiologist to increase the morphine drip in my spine form 10 to 12 ml/hour and things got more bearable.  Fortunately, you do not remember how pain feels, but you can remember that something hurt..
I came out of surgery with an NG tube--I expected that.  What I didn't expect was that I'd coughed it up into my mouth and they had to replace it in the PACU.  The second one also came out on its own about a day before they planned to take it out.  I was expecting to have them put one back in, but they didn't.  As long as I wasn't nauseous, I didn't need it.  One less tube.  I think I got rid on oxygen on Saturday or Sunday.  Another tube gone.
I kept the epidural in till Monday.  As long as that kept pumping, things were tolerable.  It got a little dicey when it ran out and they weren't johnny on the spot with the next syringe.  Adjusting to life without the morphine drip was difficult.  At one point, I went for two hours waiting for the next pain shot and for my IV bag to be changed.  That was the day that I had a less than satisfactory CNA who failed to pass on to the nurse that my IV was beeping and I was in pain.  I dozed off around shift change and was really uncomfortable when relief finally came.
My neighbor in the beginning was a a 30 or 40 something Asian woman.  Her husband was with her most of the time. They walked the halls a lot, he pushed her IV pole and held her hand--then just held her hand when she got rid of the IV.  That was pure love.  It made me smile just passing them in the hall.  I didn't get to say good by when she checked out, but I wish them well.
I had company and phone calls, cards and flowers.  I didn't have the kids set up my laptop till I'd been there about a week.  I updated my Facebook status from my IPhone--just didn't have the energy for the laptop--and there was almost no way to use it comfortably for long periods of time.  My memory of the last two weeks is sort of jumbled together.  Suffice it to say that things are progressing as they should.  If I try to pass this surgery off as "no big deal," as I have said of the last three years, someone slap me.  This surgery was a big deal.
I'm on the mend and thank you all for the prayers and support.
xxooxx