Surgery to start at 8:30 this morning. However, they were severely backed up yesterday, so that could delay us a bit this morning.
Check back for updates throughout the day.
Thank you for your support & encouragement!
8:25am – Chad was taken back to the operating room. He was in pretty good spirits, even though we both slept terribly last night. I should hear an update from the OR nurse shortly.
9:45am – Still haven’t heard anything….
10:20am – They OR nurse just called to say the surgery JUST started…I thought they would be done by now. Another 3 hours before he’s in recovery….
11:45am – I just spoke with Dr. Tatter. He said the surgery went well and there were no complications relating to the previous shunt insertion. (They thought there may be a fluid accumulation in his left lung cavity). Chad is in recovery & said to be doing well. He should be moved up to the Neurology floor within an hour or so.
SO glad the hardest part is over (the waiting game). Now, it’s time to see if this surgery actually helped!
12:45pm – Just got into the room on the Neuro floor. He looks good. He says he’s extremely sore. He has three incision sites and is complaining of a nasty little headache (says it’s a 4 out 10 on the scale). They offered Vicodin, he declined because it doesn’t work for him. Says he’ll tough it out.
3:45pm – Chad is not having a very pleasant recovery after all. He is in severe pain. He has had two whopping doses of morphine since he got to the room, and then a monster dose in the recovery room earlier. He says he feels worse, actually.
They are bringing a tiny dose of dilaudid. This is about 10 times stronger than morphine, so they are being very cautious. He says the pain is a 9 on a scale of 1-10. He told me he has never felt this terrible in his life. So sad.
4:00pm – Chad is asleep. He’s had a lot of pain medication in the last 45 minutes. Let’s hope the pain is actually better and he’s not just in a narcotic-induced sleep.
4:15pm – Scratch that. He’s not asleep. His eyes were just closed because he is tired, but can’t sleep. Says the pain is the same. All of these meds are liquids, introduced directly through his IV, so he should feel a tiny bit better by now. They cannot give him much more because it will make him sick. Waiting on another plan…
5:20pm – I just spoke to the doctor in the hall. They are switching him to dilaudid exclusively. Not sure why since it didn’t work earlier…maybe a higher dose will be more effective.
6:20pm – They gave Chad a pretty hefty dose of dilaudid about 30 minutes ago. He said it took the edge off, but now it’s creeping back full-force. He’s finally been given a meal tray, so hopefully he’ll feel a little better with some food in his system.
6:35pm – They just took him down for a CT scan and x-rays. They are looking for internal bleeding and checking the shunt tubing, etc. Poor guy – he had just gotten situated to eat dinner & then they whisk him away. He is starving!
7:35pm – He’s back from CT. He got very nauseous on the way there & the way back. He needs to eat something, but he doesn’t think he can keep it down.
8:00pm – He’s trying some applesauce. I had them order Kytril for his nausea – I know that works from our previous experiences with nausea. Let’s hope he can keep something down so he can get some vicodin (which I don’t think will help, but we’ll try)
9:00pm – Finally got Chad to feel a little more comfortable. They gave him a combo of Vicodin with Dilaudid, a Kytril drip for the nausea. I had to insist on the Kytril — only because we know it’s the only anti-nausea drug that worked during radiation/chemo. He’s “resting” in little spurts.