Hospital life

Good morning from my hospital room!  I am on day 5 since my surgery and maybe you can tell, I'm in fine spirits.  Today's post is only hospital talk so it may get a bit tedious.

(The community day room where patients can watch the Doctor Heli take off and land)

Surgery was scheduled for Monday morning at 8:30 AM and Tetsu arrived at the hospital at around 7:45 though I wasn't allowed out of the room to see him.  The nurse had hooked me up to an IV and she helped me change into a surgical gown and then together we passed Tetsu in the hallway giving him a wave and I walked a couple of floors down to the operating room.  Once on a table the anesthesiologist did a lumbar procedure (I think it must be called an epidural) and also put something in my IV to make me drowsy though I could still hear what was going on around me.  I had been fearful of having to be awake throughout the sawing and grinding etc, but whatever anesthesia I was given, the noise (and I remember hearing it) didn't much bother me.  The surgery was an hour and a half but it sure seemed shorter to me.  I was placed back on my bed and was wheeled back past Tetsu in the hallway and I was with it enough to give him a thumbs up and another wave.

(The very boring view from my hospital bed)

The doctor must have come in to tell me all was fine and to inform Tetsu because from then on I was in my room with nurses coming to check on me.  As the local anesthesia wore off the pain was starting to become very uncomfortable but when I mentioned it to the nurse something more was put in my IV and since then I haven't felt any major pain.  Amazing!

For the first two days I was hooked up to a urine bag, and a wound drainage bag and IV and then later a blood transfusion which was just my own blood they were returning to me that the hospital had stocked a couple of weeks before.  I was sitting up in bed the next morning and feeling perky enough to ask for someone to hand me my iPhone and Kindle so I was no longer bored with looking at the ceiling as I'd been the night before.

(My walker the first day)

Tuesday the drainage and urine bags were removed and the physical therapist arrived wheeling a walker and after some soft muscle massages he had me up and walking down the hall hanging on for dear life to the walker!  Hey!  I can do this and it's not too bad! 

(And my pink cane)

The next day, Wednesday I was finally disconnected from the IV and the therapist had me walking a lap around the hospital ward with a cane and the walker could be retired!  

(Practicing a lap with no cane!)

And then yesterday, Thursday,  we walked another lap around the ward without the cane! I'm basically free again!  My homework for this weekend is to walk as much as possible around the hospital ward using the cane still, and today I think the therapist is going to start giving advice about how to tackle stairs.  Isn't that amazing!  In four days I'm walking almost normally again!  Supposedly before surgery the bad leg had been about 3/4 of an inch shorter than the other (what with the wearing away of the cartilage) but now they are of equal lengths and I don't see-saw any more when I walk!  I'm really happy about that (vanity).

(We've only had bread once for breakfast.  Usually it is white rice)

(Lunch was a tofu hamburger.  I decorated my hamburger myself)

I am in a room with three other ladies (well, one lady went home yesterday) and we are discouraged from talking with each other and instead have our curtains tightly surrounding our beds.  Even so, I do exchange a few words with one lady who is 86, and the other roommate is 100 and quite chipper!

(At least once a day we are served fish)

Our meals are simple but tasty.  Every time one is served I think that Tetsu would never survive on this amount of food (maybe for men there are bigger portions).  1400 calories a day with very little sugar or salt...  And no choice of menu like a remember in the States (when I was in high school I was a Candy Striper during summer vacations).

(My reward to myself in the afternoon after walking laps!)

Anyway, everything is going smoothly and I am so happy with the progress I'm making.  I'm back to tatting and painting but most of the time I'm just relaxing.  The hospital is so comfortable and cool while Tetsu and the animals and the rest of Japan swelters in the horrible heat.  I feel rather guilty but I'm enjoying the time while I can!