Tuesday Night September 13th I have been transferred to my private (nice surprise) room. They get me situated; show me the call button, the controller for the TV, the light switch and the PCA (patient controlled anesthesia)! The PCA is a morphine drip that I get to control. As it worked out I ended up not using it very much until the following morning.

Soon after I was setup my wife calls. It was very nice to hear her voice! I asked her about her conversation with Dr. Richmond because I hadn’t had the chance yet. She relayed that he said it went technically very well which made me wonder about how well it went in general? I asked if she was worried that it took so long. Yes, but according to Dr. Richmond it didn’t take that much longer than expected, he didn’t actually get started until about 4 and was done a little after 8. I still didn’t have a clear idea as to when I would be going home and she said that they might end up keeping me another day, needless to say I did not want to stay anther day! After I get to meet with the doctor in the morning I was going to call her and give her information about when I can be picked up.

Once I got off the phone with my wife my co-worker Jeff called. I was unbelievably touched (as much as a guy could be) that he called to check in to see how I was doing. The first thing he said was that he hoped that I hadn’t seen the Red Sox score, he didn’t want me too feel any worse than I already had. I found out that he had also called my wife to see how the surgery went before that and was surprised that it had taken so long.

My Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA, the first of many and I do not remember what her name was) came in to get my vitals. I asked her if I could get something to drink and eat, she had to ask my nurse. She came back with some ice chips for me. By the time the CNA came back to get my next set of vitals the shift had changed, now Rene, the new CNA, would be taking care of me. I again asked for something to drink and eat and again she would have to ask the nurse. This time I got crackers, gram crackers, peanut butter and Sprite! I was very happy with this and ate most of it up quite fast. My mouth was still quite dry so eating the crackers became a bit difficult. After a while it was like a cow chewing on its cud but I was not complaining.

I didn’t get much sleep; Rene was coming in about every 15 minutes to check my vitals. Either way I don’t think I would have slept, I was not overly tiered and I was uncomfortable. It felt like I was in a constant “just resting the eyes” state. During this time Rene introduced me to my bedpan. I was set up in the bed with the post-surgical brace and the sleeve of the Ice Man under the brace pumping in cold water. I wasn’t in the most mobile position so the bedpan quickly became a friend of mine. Rene informed me that she would really appreciate it if I was able to pee, or void as she put it. Thankfully for all concerned I had no issues voiding! The only embarrassing thing about it is that I had to call the nurse station every time I went; they wanted to continue to measure how much I voided. It was during these times when I had to roll over on my side that the PCA became my friend!