Open heart surgery was last Tuesday, so I appoint that as day “zero” and today is day 5. They say time rushes by when you are having fun.
Actually, about half-way through our visit today Nancy said what day is this. We knew it was the 3rd but not the day of the week. Then I remembered I had picked up the Sunday morning paper – from Yakima – that we just started (Sundays only) a few weeks before she went to the hospital.
When one is working or has another regular schedule the days are easily kept track of. Not now, with us. Nancy has a TV but isn’t interested – nothing new there. At home we have a TV set but no reception. Last summer I almost did something about that, namely run a line to an aerial in the middle of the pasture 300 feet out. We bought a converter box also, but it seems a lot of work for such little reward.
We talked with the nurse some today and she claims many people do not remember these days after open heart surgery. Nancy and I are having very normal conversations and the medical staff will converse with us about many different things. It will be interesting to see what Nancy remembers of all this. I do need to take a calendar to her – at least we would know what day it is.
They did bring Nancy a breakfast she would eat – an omelette of some sort. I should have thought of that. Yesterday I promised to bring a real ice cream chocolate shake. About a mile before the hospital I stopped and bought one, she ate it, and then they brought lunch. Bad timing. Well, the lunch was green beans, white rice, and meat balls. Good luck with those. On a really hungry day she might eat the meat, the green beans never, and the white rice – probably not, or not much.
But progress is progress. Day five becomes known as the day she ‘started’ eating real food. The doctor claims this is necessary for her to flush (my word) the edema from her body and recover the look of a healthy person.
Day 6 or day 7 may be the day she sheds the chest drain. We spoke with the surgeon about it today but he wouldn’t commit. It even seems reasonable now to think of her leaving the ICU and going back to the fourth floor Advanced Care Unit (ACU). Then what?