July 13, 2010 - Ken's Surgery Yesterday

We showed up at the hospital at 1:00 yesterday afternoon as instructed only to discover the doc had been trying to get hold of us all morning to move DH's surgery up earlier. He had already turned off and packed his phone so didn't get the messages, so the surgery after us was moved up to before us. That surgery ended up taking much longer than anticipated, so DH's procedure started much later. They finally took him from pre-op to an operating room about 5:30, but didn't start on him until after 6. The procedure took about 3.5 hours and that didn't count closing him up. It was very late when I was allowed back to recovery to see him. At that time he was having a rough time - nauseated due to anesthesia, crying with much pain in his neck, etc.

Yesterday was difficult - not only the waiting, but DH had been without his meds as well as food due to the anticipated surgery. The anestheologist came by to talk with us during the afternoon and agreed to give DH an anxiety med through the IV. DH had also been without insulin all day and his glucose was climbing. It was almost 300 when he was taken back for surgery. The neuro doc was unable to get hold of our endocrinologist so came to me to talk about how to handle DH's glucose. DH is normally on a pump, but when Ken is not on a pump (ill or pump not working) I usually handle his glucose according to instructions I have from the endo.

I finally left the hospital after midnight, got home, took care of the babies, and crashed at about 2 this morning. DH was still in recovery, was rather knocked out due to pain meds and phenegren (sp?) for nausea, and barely knew I left. He has been assigned a room (577), but staff did not know what time he might be moved there. I need to run by the hospital this morning before I head in to work.

Thank you to friends Susan and Howard for coming to the hospital to be with me - it was a good break to get to talk with them for a bit while good friend Pam T. sat with DH. I'm not sure how folks get through life without great friends.

I will try to update again tonight...although today will most likely be difficult for DH, hopefully his status will be positive and the hospitalization will be short.