Post 14: Second Day After Surgery

Today started off pretty good. Meredith got to take her first sip of water in two days over the night and her ileostomy started producing so they put her on a clear liquid diet. First thing this morning I helped her up and went to the bathroom so she could brush her teeth, she was excited about that! After that she sat in her chair for a bit, we thought the day was off to a pretty good start. That unfortunately was the high point of the day. During laparoscopic surgery they pump you full of carbon dioxide so they can see what they are doing. This gas can irritate your phrenic nerve and cause some serious pain in her chest and shoulders. This pain has ended up being the primary source of Meredith's discomfort. Even with her morphine drip the pain caused by the gas has been difficult for her to manage. The pain is usually compounded when Meredith has a panic attack that causes labored breathing, it turns into a pretty rough cycle. The doctors have administered adavan in her iv to help calm her and it usually knocks her out.

The pain today has probably been the worst since the surgery and it along with the panic attacks has kept Meredith in the bed for most of the day. Though out the day Meredith has several "accessories" that have to be emptied. She currently still has a catheter, she has an ostomy bag that has to be emptied and she has a drain from the procedure still attached that moves fluid away from the areas effected by the procedure. In addition to having to be emptied they have been administering lovonox directly into her abdomen She was allowed to start her clear liquid diet so it was good for her to "eat" and her ostomy continued to produce. We talked to the stoma nurse today and she educated us on living with the ileostomy and gave us some tips. Tomorrow Meredith's mom is bringing Elise to visit and I cannot wait. She has really been a ray of sunshine through all of this.