Going home

Through the night I was troubled by pain in my upper back and around my heart.  Earlier that day Dr. Schanzer stopped by and said that I could go home.  I did mention these new pains and he said they are not related to the procedure, but he did authorize the EKG and blood test. I guess I complained enough that they took an EKG and blood sample to rule out any form of heart attack.  The doctor in charge reviewed the EKG and said it looked normal, but the blood test will have the final say.

Around 8AM they delivered a muffin, coffee and a fruit cup. The coffee tasted wonderful and the muffin was excellent.  Fruit - not so much.

[Later that morning the blood tests came back as negative on heart attack].

I did notice that when I took a big breath, the the pain worsened.  I had just mentioned the incentivizer, when a nurse arrived with one. I used this a number of times and the pain started to go away.  I guess I'll never know what caused the pain.  Maybe it was being in an uncomfortable bed for too long??

I spoke with Leslie on the phone and told he that by the time she would arrive, I'll be ready to leave.

In the meanwhile a nurse said they were going to give me lunch.  Not know the specif timings of everything, I selected a few things from the menu.  But really I wasn't hungry. What seemed like only minutes, Leslie arrived.  I still had not met with the nurse to go over my discharge instructions, so I just chit-chatted with Leslie.  Finally, nurse Donna stopped by and gave me some meds to take, then read me every page from the 8 or 9 page discharge paper work.

The high notes being:

• I have a follow up appointment on April 10
• I'm restricted from lifting anything more than the weight of a gallon of milk
• I was given two more prescriptions of drugs that need to be filled
• I needed to buy some over the counter meds: Children's aspirin; Tylenol and a stool softener
• I was given a script for Oxycontin, but chose not to have it filled.  I hate taking it because of the side effects.  But if I really needed them, I still had some left over from another surgery/procedure.

The nurse covered all my meds and when to take them.  Leslie was heard to say, 'That's a lot of medication'.

At this point, I felt weak, but was able to walk to the toilet a few times.  So it was definitely time to leave. I was told that I would be escorted out on a wheelchair.  Leslie was instructed to get the car and pull up the building.  I was let off in the lobby. It was finally done.

Leslie was kind enough to take me to Walgreen's to pic up my meds.  She even offered to go grocery shopping.  I had enough at the house, but she did raise a good point that I was restricted from driving until April 10.   That's quite a long time.  She did offer to take me to the follow up appointment on 4/10.  What a great little sister I have.

Finally home, I was only interested in sleeping.  I thought I might take a 45 minute nap, but I slept through the alarm and finally got up at 5:30.  I sat in a chair for a spell and fell right back to sleep.  I woke up at 9PM.  I decided to go to bed.  I woke up just a few times, but slept until 9:30 AM today.

I still don't have much of an appetite, but I managed to eat some oatmeal.  Still no bowl movement yet.

[Read the paper and found out we are getting 6 to 8 inches of snow.  I guess it's something else to be anxious about].

More to come!