On the Road---to Recovery at Home!

I'm finally home again, hopefully for good!  The doctors released me based on a high side of a normal white cell count, two CAT scans that showed no leakage outside of the bowels, no abscess, and discontinued use of high-powered IV pain killers.  The two different kinds of IV antibiotics over four days seemed to have worked their magic.  Apparently I had some internal infection and highly irritated tissues at the surgery site.

So after picking up oral antibiotics, I luxuriated this afternoon in a deep sleep nap snuggled among smooth fitted sheets and uninterrupted silence.  I awakened without a tangled up mess of course hospital blankets, an awkward hospital gown and IV tubes.  Ah... the simple things in life!

My bloating and all of it's relative pain from the October 25 surgery is pretty much gone, as is the soreness from the incision site.  The pain is now internal where things were sewn or stapled together, and it comes and goes in big waves, but is generally much better and tolerable than what admitted me to the ER Tuesday and the hospital for a second time on Wednesday.    Other than the differences between the pain from my first discharge on October 31 and today is that this time I have basically no energy.

Kathy had to create a spreadsheet
just to keep track of everything.

It goes without saying that it is so good to be home.  Beyond sleeping and bathing comforts, our own TV, broadband internet, our view, our own cooking, the quite, the lack of constant interruptions day and night.  All of these bring a sense of place and calm to what is home.

Once again, big thanks go to the wonderful  nursing staff at Salem Hospital (many of whom I was privileged to see again), Kathy for her advocacy, visits, and nursing care at home, all of you who have wished me well, the doctors, and modern medicine that are making this second chance at life possible.

This has been quite an adventure, but one that makes me cherish all of the others I've written about so much more.


I'm learning of other friends and relatives who have had this same type of thing.  They have given me a lot of reassurance, education, and hope, especially since one of them is a doctor.  We call ourselves semi-colons.

My prime directive!