Post Op Day 1 : 12/6/2012

I was awake every hour on the hour while in the hospital, happily hitting my pain pump. I did not any real pain and was determined to keep it that way.

My night nurse was great and brought me some swabs for my mouth as my doctor does not even allow ice chips until he sees you in the am. Around 4 am since I was awake my

nurse asked if I was ready to get up and assisted me up and for a little walk around the unit. When I came back to my room I sat up in a chair for awhile and she brought

my what can best be described as a microwaved package of thicker, larger. baby wipes to perform a bed bath on myself. I climbed back in bed and woke up 3 hours later.

When I woke up my left arm felt cold and wet, turns out I blew my IV so no meds, fluids or my pain pump going meds were reaching me. The doctor came in as the nurse was

attempting a new iv and said I could start on ice chips. YEAH!!!!!!!! The IV restart was unsuccessful but the nurse provided me with a large plastic container of BEAUTIFUL ice chips and small medicine cups. i was instructed to have one medicine cup if ice chips every 15 min while awake. The first four "cups" did not even reach my new sleeve because my dehydrated, gummy, mouth absorbed all that moisture. MY catheter was also discontinued and finally a nurse was able to get my IV started. It was time for my pain pump to be discontinued and I sniffled and hit it one last time for good measure. This second day I felt "gassy" and would burp and hiccup a lot which helped move the gas along. I didn't really walk the halls as I was freezing but I did get up several times to sit in the chair in my room and I walked back and forth to the bathroom every hour. Ice chips all day and night and they went down with no problem. No matter how tired I was I had trouble getting comfy and only managed to have a three

hour stretch where I slept. Other than that I was awake every hour.