Post Op Day 3

Forrest had a good night. We got him settled about ten-thirty and he/we slept well until 3 AM when the phlebotomist showed up to draw blood. He turned on ALL three lights in the room, said he had to be able to see to draw blood. He did his job and left - leaving all of the lights on!

We were able to sleep a couple more hours - after I got up and shut off the lights - until the night shift began their morning rounds to check vital signs. The CNA that came in for Forry's vitals asked about and delivered coffee to us both. The staff has been incredibly nice to us. Forry's nurse even brought me an extra breakfast tray from a patient who had been discharged.

There has been talk almost from Day 1 about the possibility of Forry going over to St. Luke's for in-house rehab following his discharge from the Medical Center. He did so well with PT his first day post-op that they decided wasn't going to need to. Then there was the really bad night and on Day Two both PT and OT were re-writing their recommendations.

By today, he was down to only Tylenol for pain - NO narcotics due to his reactions to them (you're not supposed to sleep around the clock after taking them!). He's had a good day overall, even got a shower! Both the St. Luke's lady and the Group Health (insurance company) came by and said they still thought he wasn't "bad enough" to go to St. Luke's. As we talked about alternatives, the Group Health lady basically said they would prefer to keep him at the Medical Center for a couple of extra days rather than go through the hassle of transfering him to an area nursing home for a few days.

I guess "length of stay" issues are not as important now as they were when I was a hospital administrator. The hospitals now lose more Medicare dollars if they have patients re-admitted after they have been discharged...

Anyway, I think it was a good compromise. It'll give him a few more days to build up his strength for getting up in a bed that doesn't have handrails.

He was looking good when I left, eating his dinner. I brought his dirty clothes home to wash. Sadly, when I walked in the RV door and turned on the ball game, the Mariners - with Felix pitching - were already behind 6-0!