husband just finished surgery....Indiana pouch

Well, Pat, I would welcome the makeup thing....even let him use mine, if it would help him get better faster! ;D

Last night was a v-e-r-y interesting one. I had met the night nurse, and we did the bonding thing, and I was very impressed with her neuro tests (she actually stopped at mid-line on the eye muscle check), and things were going great until she turned him over and inspected his epidural.

It looked like it was out. After calling in two other sets of eyes, they decided it WAS out, and had no idea when it came out. Doran freaked a little, and I don't blame him. The nurse put in a call to Pain Management (in this hospital nobody does anything for pain except them), and we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally they called back, and said, since he had already had his heparin, they could not replace the epidural.

Much groaning and gnashing of teeth. Crying and complaining. And that was just me! The nurse tried to call them back, and that time they put ME on the line, because they could see the steam coming out of my ears.

Didn't work, but at least they tried.

At least when they had been in earlier, I had insisted on his getting his regular dose of Celexa (it controls his depression, and he hadn't had any since Saturday, and I can understand his deep deep emotional pain. It was as if he were back a couple of years ago before we found the Celexa solution.

Anyway, the powers that be let him have 40 mg with a small sip of water, and then said they'd give him some ativan for the anxiety, and he'd sleep.

After about 45 minutes, he felt good enough for me to go back to the hotel.

When I got there this morning, he was a different person! His mood was much better, and he didn't hardly swear at all (didn't learn a thing from that roommate, who by the way was discharged today....yippee!). We got him up, and he walked the "track", we cleaned him up, and put him back to bed, and I went back to the hotel to work out and breakfast.

I came back, and he actually said he was ready to walk again, but didn't go quite as far. His color is better, and maybe he would benefit from a little eye shadow, right, Pat?

He's looking better, and right now he is, um, DISCRETION WARNING, hung like a BULL, from the fluid build-up in his scrotum. It makes it hard to walk, but he can smile when he complains.

He needs to get two more walks in tonight, and then he can rest. He actually got a couple of hours of sleep while I was gone. Which is good, because he's going to get another roommate. The nurses said it would be a full house tonight.

Thanks again for all the support, Tim and Pat. I hope to bring him down to the lounge tonight to read his caringbridge messages, and maybe get him on line to this site to ask a few questions.

I'm going to make sure that he has the Celexa ordered for tonight, again.

bye for now,

Stephany in Iowa

i had the neobladder surgery and I concur with the second and third day comment. although mine was probably third and fourth. I thought I was out of the woods and felt at my grimmest on those days both physically and emotionally

Stephanie....Xanax can be put in a drip....anti-depressents can be administered by I.V. However I would get ahold of your surgeon and tell him the drugs he was on prior to the surgery and unless there's a real contradiction with drugs he's now receiving he should be able to order them and in actuality they may be contraindicated. Personally i was on Ativan prior to surgery but really didn't need it as the morphine pretty much would sedate me..not for long...but i was grateful for the 10 minutes pain free i got (i was watching the clock!!) And your husbands reaction to the surgery......He stole those lines from me....I said the same thing. 3 days later i was sitting cross-legged on the bed putting on make-up.....We'll hope he doesn't do that......but what i'm trying to say is hold on for another day....don't strangle the guy in the next bed but do get ahold of his remote and throw it out a window......buy a bottle of wine and go back to the hotel and have a hot bath. Pat

I thought I might change the subject line to one that more adequately described our place now in the cycle. My husband just had a cystectomy yesterday. He was in surgery for 11 hours. The surgeon said that the long time in the operating room was for several reasons. Number one, they found a double hernia while they were in there, so they decided to fix that. (now I have to google a double hernia to find out what he had!). Then, my husband is a large person, and there were, I am sure, some layers to get through. And the surgeon said that the Indiana pouch takes a little longer than a neo-bladder.

Now, he's out of surgery. He has walked four times, and the anesthesiologist who visited with him tonight said he was doing really well. Unfortunately, he doesn't agree. He is so p*****d that he says he would rather have let the cancer get him.

He is having some trouble getting a lung full of air, and has a wonderful device called an "incentive spirometer." As I said before, I don't know what the incentive is....there are no stickers, no rewards, just a lot of pain when he coughs afterwards. And that is normal, too, I understand.

His roommate is a crusty old guy with a mouth like a sewer who left his TV on all night last night, so between that and not having had his depression meds since Saturday, it might be a toss up as to who survives tonight!

I asked the nurse about his meds, and she said why hasn't he had them? And I explained that he wasn't supposed to have anything by mouth. (dope slap). OK, now I think they'll let him have some tonight with a tiny sip of water, and maybe let him do some xanax sub-lingual (which was my first suggestion anyway). I talked to the attending, and the pain management doc, and between them, they have something ordered to help him sleep. Poor guy, he is practically on the edge with no sleep.

I have managed to get him up and walking the hall all by myself, and even had him sitting in a wheelchair for one brief shining moment until the pain got him.

He has a morphine drip, controlled by him, and that helps. The anesthesiologist was so much better than with the TURBT. His throat felt so good that he was convinced that he had not had a breathing tube for the 11 hours of surgery. I'm glad he got a chance to compliment the doc who did that.

Anyway, that's where we are. If anyone out there is contemplating Indiana pouch surgery, let me tell you what the attending said: the second and third day are probably the worst. And so far, I'd say he's right. What an old grump he was today. But there's always tomorrow. I have smoothed out so many tiny wrinkles in the bed sheets that I feel like a Marine.

Thanks for listening!

Stephany in Iowa