Karin did great today. She really wasn't keen on getting out of bed, knowing it would hurt. But she was brave and did it. It was certainly a challenge... she needed help getting up of course because of the incision, but things were complicated by her left shoulder being very painful to even touch (from the cancer), and her right shoulder also being in pain (side effect of pressure during surgery we're told), and her right thigh being so numb that she didn't really have much control over that leg... So basically we could work with a hand on her back and some support via her right arm. So we couldn't really help too much and Karin had to put in a lot of effort. The hard part for her is that despite the pain meds, as soon as she moved in any way, her left shoulder bone pain was very intense. She shed some tears but she got through it.. got into a chair, where she stayed for a couple hours and did very well, during which time her mom left the kids and came to visit. The switch back to bed was equally tough. Once there, she quickly fell asleep, and awoke 1.5 hours later in pain at her side. It took 1.5 hours to really get the pain under control again, with another 30 minutes of sleep in the middle, because she was so exhausted.
Before that pain started, I went home for an hour while Karin's mom was visiting to collect some things and spend a little time with the kids. Kevin was happy to see me but not at all weepy and asked no questions.. seemed like he actually had forgot where mommy was, but who knows.
When Karin was feeling well mid day, we decided to have the kids visit after dinner. Unfortunately, by the time Grandpa and Grandma brought them to visit, Karin was in pretty bad shape. She could hardly speak (just a whisper) and couldn't even smile. She felt really bad about Kevin seeing her this way. We assured Kevin that mommy will be doing better tomorrow. We ketp the visit very short, and he didn't get to touch mommy, just blow a kiss. He was upset to leave, but his emotions change quickly so I'm sure he was ok before long.
We finally got Karin's pain under control and she is sleeping again now. I pray she will wake pain-free too.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Surgery First night
Karin woke every 1-2 hours through the night. I kept a log of when she pushed the button to trigger a release of pain medicine. She did every time she woke, but she was only in a slight discomfort most times. I dozed off in a chain next to her for a few hours.
At 4:30am a nurse came in to take a blood draw for testing. Karin woke up not feeling well and definitely not expecting a needle stick in the night, so tensed up and was hurting. The nurse said the doctors wanted to have the results before they came in, but she would come back in a few hours. The night nurse that we have came in every 2 hours to check on us and check equipment and another nurse came in to take blood pressure every few hours. The night nurse is a very sweet soft-spoken Indian woman. Around 6am she was telling us some about the day ahead.. that Karin will need to get out of bed briefly today, and will eat a light breakfast (jello and broth). Karin was expressing fear about the getting out of bed, and this night nurse spoke very comfortingly of the difficulty, acknowledging that she is young and this is not fair, then encouraging Karin to focus on the goal of getting well and getting all of this behind her (the surgery and the cancer).. to think of a year from now looking back and being able to laugh about it, resolving to reach that goal no mater what stands in her way, then taking each day and moment a step at a time. She spoke like a counselor - comforting yet guiding and encouraging.
At 6am the other nurse came back to draw blood, and Karin was courageous and hardly flinched.
At 8am, breakfast came in, and a nurse help me (because we were nervous) raise the head of the bed, which is at a 45 degree angle now. Karin had a few spoons of jelly and broth and sips of apple juice. Her stomach feels odd, and she doesn't have an appetite, so she decided to stop for now.
Then she realized that her right thigh is totally numb and she cannot flex it - she cannot raise her right knee. The nurse aide came in around this time and we told her, and she said she'd get the regular nurse. We were not panicking, but were certainly were a bit alarmed. While waiting for the nurse, I realized that this is just below the incision, which is getting local anesthetic via the epidural, so then I felt better realizing that it made sense for the local to spread to numbing nearby areas, just like when a dentist numbs your teeth and your lip goes numb too. When the nurse arrived he said that could be it, he checked her and verified everything else was good, then called the anesthesiologist who said it was normal due to the local in the epidural.
At 4:30am a nurse came in to take a blood draw for testing. Karin woke up not feeling well and definitely not expecting a needle stick in the night, so tensed up and was hurting. The nurse said the doctors wanted to have the results before they came in, but she would come back in a few hours. The night nurse that we have came in every 2 hours to check on us and check equipment and another nurse came in to take blood pressure every few hours. The night nurse is a very sweet soft-spoken Indian woman. Around 6am she was telling us some about the day ahead.. that Karin will need to get out of bed briefly today, and will eat a light breakfast (jello and broth). Karin was expressing fear about the getting out of bed, and this night nurse spoke very comfortingly of the difficulty, acknowledging that she is young and this is not fair, then encouraging Karin to focus on the goal of getting well and getting all of this behind her (the surgery and the cancer).. to think of a year from now looking back and being able to laugh about it, resolving to reach that goal no mater what stands in her way, then taking each day and moment a step at a time. She spoke like a counselor - comforting yet guiding and encouraging.
At 6am the other nurse came back to draw blood, and Karin was courageous and hardly flinched.
At 8am, breakfast came in, and a nurse help me (because we were nervous) raise the head of the bed, which is at a 45 degree angle now. Karin had a few spoons of jelly and broth and sips of apple juice. Her stomach feels odd, and she doesn't have an appetite, so she decided to stop for now.
Then she realized that her right thigh is totally numb and she cannot flex it - she cannot raise her right knee. The nurse aide came in around this time and we told her, and she said she'd get the regular nurse. We were not panicking, but were certainly were a bit alarmed. While waiting for the nurse, I realized that this is just below the incision, which is getting local anesthetic via the epidural, so then I felt better realizing that it made sense for the local to spread to numbing nearby areas, just like when a dentist numbs your teeth and your lip goes numb too. When the nurse arrived he said that could be it, he checked her and verified everything else was good, then called the anesthesiologist who said it was normal due to the local in the epidural.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Pain Free :-)
Karin slept for an hour, then woke up at 9pm. She wasn't in any pain. Yay!! I've really been worried that she might be in pain when she woke up, so that was such a relief to me that she is feeling ok :-) Her mouth was a little dry, but I have ice chips I can give her that help wet her mouth. She was awake for 15 minutes, then slept again.
Karin's in her room
I've was having trouble with my wireless connection from the room, and was too busy talking to Karin and the nurses to get it working, so sorry for the delayed blog posting..
Karin arrived on a wheeled bed around 6:30pm.. awake but very sedated. She said a weary hi but couldn't give any facial expression.
Then we were sent to wait in the hall while they transfered her to the room bed. She screamed when they did it ;-( She told me later that it was her shoulder that hurt when they moved her, not her side.
Thankfully we questioned the nurses about what is being done with her pain medication, because they were not doing all that was ordered... because Karin has such existing pain, and because her side will have a lot of pain, the anesthesiologist told us before surgery that she would have an epidural for numbing her side, and normally they would give local pain meds and narcs via that, but that since she has existing pain at other sights, they would give only the local via the epidural and narcs via IV. Well, because this was unusual, the nurses saw the system wide narcs and thought that was all, they did not see the order for the pain meds via the epidural. We asked the nurses and when they said she wasn't going to get anything via the epidural - we pushed them to check again, telling them what we had been told previously... they resisted but I persisted and they then found the order and went to get equipment to hook up to her epidural... unfortunately it took until 7:30pm to get that going (apparently they were working on it as fast as possible but it takes a long time to get set-up). Karin was in increasing pain at her side during the period and we were all getting frustrated.
Her mouth was also miserably dry and the floor nurses said it wasn't safe to wet her mouth. Finally when the recovery room nurse came back with the pump for her epidural, she said that it was totally safe for Karin to be getting some ice chips to help wet her mouth, and that she already had some within minutes after surgery and showed no problems.
It took until 8pm before her pain finally got under control and she fell asleep.
Karin arrived on a wheeled bed around 6:30pm.. awake but very sedated. She said a weary hi but couldn't give any facial expression.
Then we were sent to wait in the hall while they transfered her to the room bed. She screamed when they did it ;-( She told me later that it was her shoulder that hurt when they moved her, not her side.
Thankfully we questioned the nurses about what is being done with her pain medication, because they were not doing all that was ordered... because Karin has such existing pain, and because her side will have a lot of pain, the anesthesiologist told us before surgery that she would have an epidural for numbing her side, and normally they would give local pain meds and narcs via that, but that since she has existing pain at other sights, they would give only the local via the epidural and narcs via IV. Well, because this was unusual, the nurses saw the system wide narcs and thought that was all, they did not see the order for the pain meds via the epidural. We asked the nurses and when they said she wasn't going to get anything via the epidural - we pushed them to check again, telling them what we had been told previously... they resisted but I persisted and they then found the order and went to get equipment to hook up to her epidural... unfortunately it took until 7:30pm to get that going (apparently they were working on it as fast as possible but it takes a long time to get set-up). Karin was in increasing pain at her side during the period and we were all getting frustrated.
Her mouth was also miserably dry and the floor nurses said it wasn't safe to wet her mouth. Finally when the recovery room nurse came back with the pump for her epidural, she said that it was totally safe for Karin to be getting some ice chips to help wet her mouth, and that she already had some within minutes after surgery and showed no problems.
It took until 8pm before her pain finally got under control and she fell asleep.
In the room
We were just brought to Karin's room. They said she's in some pain, but will be here in about 10 minutes..
Surgery Done !
We were told at 4:40 that surgery was done. It started late and so looks like it was only 2 hours (out of the scheduled 3 hours), so we knew that was a good sign even before we spoke to the doctor.
A little bit later we spoke with the surgeon. Everything went well and Karin is in the recovery room. We asked if she would be well enough on Tuesday to be taken by ambulance over to the nearby radiation oncology office to receive radiation treatment that day, and he said "sure, if she's even still in the hospital - she might be home". He said that since she's young and strong he expects she will recover from surgery well and she can go home as soon as she can eat well and the pain is managed well by oral medication. He said she'll be able to go up and down stairs at that point (Grant asked a smart question about her sleeping upstairs). He said she should be staying in a private room tonight (ie, she's in good stable condition and won't need the close monitoring of ICU). So I'll be sleeping at the hospital tonight.
So now we wait some more. We might be able to see her in the recovery room, but more likely she will first be moved to her private room first and we'll see her there. We've been told it could be 2 hours, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just 30-60 minutes if she's feeling well enough when she wakes up in recovery.
We thank God for another day of blessing.
A little bit later we spoke with the surgeon. Everything went well and Karin is in the recovery room. We asked if she would be well enough on Tuesday to be taken by ambulance over to the nearby radiation oncology office to receive radiation treatment that day, and he said "sure, if she's even still in the hospital - she might be home". He said that since she's young and strong he expects she will recover from surgery well and she can go home as soon as she can eat well and the pain is managed well by oral medication. He said she'll be able to go up and down stairs at that point (Grant asked a smart question about her sleeping upstairs). He said she should be staying in a private room tonight (ie, she's in good stable condition and won't need the close monitoring of ICU). So I'll be sleeping at the hospital tonight.
So now we wait some more. We might be able to see her in the recovery room, but more likely she will first be moved to her private room first and we'll see her there. We've been told it could be 2 hours, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just 30-60 minutes if she's feeling well enough when she wakes up in recovery.
We thank God for another day of blessing.
Surgery started
We got paged and got to see Karin again, after her epidural was in, she was a little doped up, but she was proud of herself for having 'do it' -- she had to be awake for the epidural being inserted, which she was scared about. The epidural will completely numb the surgery area so she's not in pain during or after surgery.
We were told the doctor had arrived, and she was being wheeled into the surgery room as we headed back to the waiting room.
I've been fasting with Karin since midnight, but both the nurse and Karin asked me to eat while she is in surgery, because I'll not want to leave her afterwards, and I'll need to be in good shape to be supportive for her afterwards. So her dad and I are heading to the cafeteria.
We were told the doctor had arrived, and she was being wheeled into the surgery room as we headed back to the waiting room.
I've been fasting with Karin since midnight, but both the nurse and Karin asked me to eat while she is in surgery, because I'll not want to leave her afterwards, and I'll need to be in good shape to be supportive for her afterwards. So her dad and I are heading to the cafeteria.
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