Husband having surgery Tuesday 3/2

Mary, and Rick; I do not do well on morphine either. But here
at the hospital in Salem,OR. the epidural is pretty much
standard for neo surgery. It was what i just had two months ago. I can tell you when i woke-up i couldn't figure out what
the big deal was worrying about pain. I told friends and family
i felt great! And i did for the first three days. On day four
when they took out the epidural, then i new what the big deal
was about pain. But i took no pain pills after that so my
digestive track could start working. Really i think a epidural
is the only way to go.
Mary; i don't know if they can get him off morphine and go to
epidural or pills but you can sure ask. He shouldn't have to lay there out of his head or in pain from his leg! IT'S A HOSPITAL, TWENTY FIRST CENTURY! SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!!!
Someone needs to get the doctors attention!!!
Duke

Epidural seems to be the standard pain management technique here. Spoke to another survivor and that is what he had and what my Dr told me to expect. Hope so, cause if not, there will likely be a linch mob outside my door within a day or so... I do not do well on the morphine Rick

Mary..you really must stop having those rowdy parties outside his room!! My father kept accusing me of doing the same thing at his house...that and stealing his wallet!!
See if you can get ahold of the pain management team and possibly give him an epidural for the pain. That is done in many hospitals now for cystectomy. It just takes the edge off the first few days which are truly very painful. By day 3 it still hurts and i never did get to a fully upright position when walking but pain was manageable. Everyone is different.
But not wanting to frighten you please ask about this
Well leg compartment syndrome (WLCS) is being seen more frequently as the complexity and duration of pelvic urological surgery increases, ie reconstruction/radical cancer surgery. The etiology of WLCS is multifactorial and prevention should form the mainstay of treatment. With significant morbidity and mortality, in particular lower limb morbidity secondary to fasciotomy wounds and long-term neurological sequelae, all urologists should be aware of this iatrogenic complication and how to prevent or treat it when it occurs.
Also explore this article on lymphphatic injuries in surgery and the test for them.
www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123305656/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
none of this is to scare you ..just to arm you to look into any and all possibilities.
Just cover all the bases........Pat

Ok this mornignhe was in better humor. He asked his day nurse to call dr. He did stop by and said ultrsoound looked good no blood clots no vein or artery problems. He still thinks it is nerve problem relating to surgery. He looked and poked at his leg. It is so swollen, cool, skin stretched tight. Foot cannot fit slipper on it. He said he might send a another doc to look.
So I asked him how long on morphine pump. He said he should only be pushing the button when he needs to. Well that is every 8 minutes. It is set at 2.5 I don't know how high that really is. So here's the thing....doc said he was going to start him on soom oral pain pills. So my son and I went to lunch and my husband called and asked where we were. I said at lunch and he insisted were outside the door. hE complained about a party going on etc. Ya I know it's the paiun meds and he is halucinating. So I went to the nurse and asked nif she sould turn down the pump. I told her he was in outer space. She did. I lastest is that he saying he is going to go check himself into the emergency room because the pain is so bad. I was going to go home since I haven't been home since Monday, bu now I am afraid to leave.

Hi Mary; I hope you're both doing better today! I said before
that i have always believed that the spouse has the hardest
part in these things, and my wife has had to go through it
many times. You are doing exactly what you are suppose to do!
It's your job to drive the bus when your husband can't. Some
one must do that and it sounds like you are good at it. Tho i do have to say no one could be better then my wife at it.
There is so much tension in all this; the worry, the waiting,
the lack of sleep, the pain and discomfort. You will both get
through this. You need to get some rest tho, there are still some hard days ahead, the worst being till he gets to go home.
The surgery part will kind of take care of its' self. It's
the secondary stuff like the leg pain and getting his digestive
track working that the staff need to focus on.
Wishing you both the best.
Duke

Mary..its ok to have the good cop.bad cop thing going here. You're his advocate..you are allowed to be the bad cop! I know when i was in the hospital(second time as my ureter trapped a part of my ileum..so second surgery 10 days after the first) whatever they were giving me (i lost 2 l/2 weeks) apparently made me EVIL PAT...i even accused one nurse of having an affair with my husband! Who knows what all i said?? And the other thing is i kept complaining about the pain....my husband finally insisted that they wean me down on the pain meds to baseline me..(He had seen me insist on that with my father when i was caring for him)..and within 2 days Evil Pat had left the building and i was asking "How long have i been here?"...When my husband said 2 l/2 weeks i was astounded. I really did not have any significant pain...normal pain that a tylenol took care of. Pretty wierd. I'm not saying this is the case with your husband but opiates can do some pretty strange things and seriously just let whatever he says to you go flying over your head..he'll never remember it! Continue to ask the tough questions..i would be concerned about the reduced blood flow in the leg that hurts unless there was some underlying PAD prior to surgery but you probably would not know that? When i had the DVT i did not so much have any pain but lots of swelling of my thigh and heat..they knew right away before the doppler what it was.
Congrats on all nodes being clean..thats wonderful news.
Pat