Rounds are happening now and the ICU nurses are changing shifts. Carolina was our nurse throughout yesterday evening and the wee hours of the morning. She was thoughtful and attentive. Last night was rough. Liza's pain got pretty bad at a few points, as the surgical anesthesia continued...
That one to ten pain scale is a bit tricky. You know the one: “Can you rate your pain on a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst?” On the one hand you can’t say ten. That would be presumptuous for most, let’s be honest. Unless you're in labor pains, broke your femur or...
Dr. Normand spoke to me in recovery again. She hand wrote a full list of all medications that they gave Liza pre-op, during and post. Included was a special nausea medication that is apparently a big deal and very expensive for the hospital. So expensive that she would get in trouble if she...
Liza is now in the ICU room surrounded by family and great nurses. She said, "my pain is now a zero or one out of ten." And that has not been true for about four years. To be clear, there are some good pain medications currently involved in that number, but we are praying that it...
We just got a visit from Dr. Normand (who is amazing by the way), and that was unexpected. Dr. Normand is a specialist - neuro-anesthesia. She came out to ask for the pharmacogenetics report we showed her previously in pre-op. Our first thought was that this was because of a problem in pain...
We were just called back to the desk. Apparently Liza was still in the OR until 11:58. Not sure why, but maybe a resident was closing the incision or they had other procedural things to do. So she has been in recovery now officially for about 30 minutes. But she has to be there for at least one...
Dr. Kim just called us back to a private conference room. He said that Liza is done and that everything went very well. He opened her previous incision, "peeled" the muscles back and inserted titanium mesh over the "defect." He said it was perfect and Liza did very well. She will be in...
Yesterday was a tough day. There is an unconscious psychological game that goes on when one is watching the clock without ever looking at the clock. All four of us felt it in the air all day. I found sleep the night before very disturbing. So did Liza. My sleep was filled with anxious dreams...
I am sitting in a waiting room filled with families on the spectrum between nervous and anxious. Above me on the wall is a television devoted to surgical patients and their status. We have a number for Liza and are following her. Liza’s line says, “In surgery @ 8:38.” There are...
