Day after surgery - Afternoon

By noon when the morphine had worn off, I felt much better. No groggines nor nausea. For afternoon PT, the attendant asked if I wanted to climb steps. I said yes with some apprehension. I followed the attendant down the hall on two crutches. We approached a door which he openened, thus exposing a stairway with about 12 steps. He instructed me on how to hold the crutches and how to step up with my good leg. I went up the steps successfully, but it was painful and exhausting. I went down the steps leading with the surgical foot, or bad leg as he called it. To remember this, he suggested thinking of leading with the good leg when going up to heaven, and leading with the bad leg when going down to the other place. I found this cute, but useful to remember. I proceeded down the steps, and then proceeded to my room to lay in bed in once again. My leg was throbbing with pressure at the incision--as if the incision was ready to burst. The PT person felt confident that I could now navigate the 13 steps in my house leading to the bedroom. I was also confident, but a bit anxious. Climbing those steps at the hospital wore me out. I was sweating.

The PT attendant then placed my leg in continuous motion machine to flex my leg from full extension to a 25 degree bend. The machine manipulated my leg for nearly two hours.

Before the PT person showed up, Margaret and Chad paid a visit. Like Kirk and Eric, Chad appeared apprehensive when he gave me a hug while laying in the hospital bed. Chad noticed the urine bag beneath my bed and saw the hose traveling up under my sheets. He winced at this.

I showed Chad the breathing device that I had to inhale deeply with in order to enrich my blood cells--a device to prevent pneumonia. When I took a good long inhale (toke) of the device to show Chad how it worked, I then handed it to him and said earrr... Chad smiled and got the joke.

In the late afternoon, Margaret returned and soon thereafter my boss Bob from the U of M paid a visit. I showed bob the incision, and we discussed his wife's recent surgery with a hip replacement. There were parallels with her surgery and my own.

I told Margaret and Bob that I had to give myself a shot in the belly for 14 days to aid in  the prevention of blood clots. The medication is called Lovenix. A nurse had already instructed me in how to do this, and I did give myself a shot, though with some trepidation.

Bob left at about 5pm, and Margaret kept me company until 7pm. Margaret shared some of my dinner by eating the dessert. After this, I continued reading the Memoirs of Ulysess S. Grant, focusing on the section detailing the surrender of Robert E. Lee and the Army of Virginia. Both generals worked hard to end the war as they both indicated that they had no desire to continue further effusion of blood between the soldiers of the North and South. The South was in ruins with Shermans march. The North outlasted the South based on greater reserves of resources.

I finally fell asleep only to be awoken for a BP check and more pills by midnight. The nurse mentioned that (tomorrow) at 6am on Friday--2 days after surgery that they would remove the catheter. I was elated as I really wanted to be paroled from the catheter. The nurse smiled when she noticed my elation, noting that most men were very happy to hear this news....