4/22/12 - Exit Strategy

Disclaimer: there are some pictures below that may induce squeemishness if you are the squeemish type.

I arrived this morning to a patient on a full liquid diet, which includes coffee not necessary from the hospital menu. Actually when I got there, I rounded the corner and saw John in the hallway, taking one of his required walks solo - an immediate good sign. He looked great and was obviously past the major issues of yesterday. We went through the process of a shower and I have to admit, we have got this down. If the tech world doesn't work out, we could give seminars on partner bathing (it sounds sexy but wait until you're out of the hospital for any shenanigans).  We came out of the shower and ran into our smiling doctor. Today was the day to switch from IV meds to oral meds. He got his first dose of pills and then out with the neck IV.

So I thought I was all "ew, that's gross!" with this picture and then the nurse pulled it out. That shit was about 18 inches long.... INTO HIS NECK! I did the heebie jeebie dance in my head while I tried to keep my composure. After that, we knew that we were safe to venture off our floor (they told us last time that once you no longer had an IV with morphine, you could go further because there wasn't a risk of someone mugging you for your IV. I know, right? They said that it's happened.) With our new found freedom, we got the hell out into this glorious sunshine!

We came back and John had a real lunch (grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup for the win) and it was time for the inevitable wound shot:

The first thing to go was the wound drain. This sucks out any of the fluids a body produces after trauma (imagine a blister but with gut juice). It looks simple enough hanging out of his side, but you don't know until they pull it out that the skin has already started to grow around it and it goes about a foot and a half into his innards. It's the worst part of the tube removals by leaps and bounds. So then we're left with the staples. 

One by one, out they come. Our nurse for this was great, but I did get the tiniest hint that he liked doing this. He also offered both John and I the chance to pull one ourselves. We declined. Once he was done, John is held together with tape! No heavy lifting or sneezing please.

After this, all we have left is to get through a couple sequences of pain meds and that's it! We had a visit from our lovely BFFs Jen2 and then went down to hang out in the beautiful, sunny courtyard of the Cancer Center.

 
We are right on schedule, and it feels good to have this part wrapping up. This doesn't mean we're done, but getting out of the hospital means that you are ready to go back to real life, even if it is limited (which it is). We have to stay on pretty strong meds for a bit (always scary) and John's mobility and energy are both limited so we have to really plan activity carefully. There are some things we both want to take part in at work this week so we are going to try to do that. Again, we appreciate both of our jobs giving us the flexibility to be away from the office and to keep our hands into our work. If you don't see us in person, you'll see us on Webex. Sorry in advance if JJ busts out the scar. Thanks for everyone's support. The messages and posts are really nice to read as we spend our days getting pissed about whoever is winning Words with Friends. (I was killing it and he got a 99 point word. really?)