I slept pretty well last night. I think the morphine really knocked me out. The nurse would come In every 15-30mins to check bp and fluids, but I still slept pretty deeply and had some pretty vivid dreams (and I'm not one who normally remembers dreams). Today has been pretty good also. I used the morphine pump a few times this morning and the physio came around and I stood up for the first time with my new disc. I was a tiny bit light headed, but felt fine. Once the nurses could hear bowel sounds, I was allowed to start drinking water instead of just having ice cubes.
This afternoon, the physio came back and this time I walked a small circle out into the hallway and back into my room, with everything feeling ok. They then disconnected my morphine pump and switched over to just oral paracetamol (what we call acetaminophen). I'm glad I used the morphine pump gradually, not waiting for the pain to build up as I think I bypassed the toughness that can come the first night or so. It didn't seem to slow down the recovery of my intestines too much as I was allowed to have a bowl of soup for dinner tonight which was really good. My stomach handled it just fine and things are coming back online. They unhooked the iv fluids and said they would take the catheter out tomorrow which will be the last of the plumbing to be unhooked.
The food menu looks awesome here with things like, steak, lamb, and prawn cocktail for dinner, I just hope I don't get the boot before I get a chance to have one of their dinners.
Great news! Hope you have another good night and day ahead - with food too!
ReplyDeleteTim! So happy to hear things are going well. Can't wait to see you and your new back when you get home! :)
ReplyDeleteNice one Tim. Once you start walking around more & navigating staircases you'll feel like a new person with a much brighter, active & painfree future ahead of you.
ReplyDeleteOh, by-the-way, .... I was going to suggest the Indian curry off the food menu if your bowels weren't quite 'online' yet, ....worked for me!! :-) ... and delicious too!
All the very best.
Si.
Thanks joey sue and Janet! Feeling better and better.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip, Si. I think things are starting to start back up, but if they stall out, maybe the curry will give it a nudge.