Courtney slept well from about 10:30 til 2:30, then she woke-up with some pain in her right shoulder. Once Jennifer got her to go back to sleep, she slept okay until 4 or so when they came in to do vitals and then again to draw blood. I sat up with her for awhile before I had to take a shower, but she was still sleeping well when I left around 7:30.
This morning for breakfast, she ate some yogurt, pudding, and drank some apple juice. They are going to give her some oral pain medicine to see if she can handle it now with food on her stomach. Thus far, she has thrown up everytime they have given it to her with no food on her stomach. If she tolerates it well, they will begin weaning her from the small amount of IV pain medicine that she is getting continuously but will still be able to push the button for the pain med and receive other IV and oral pain meds on request. They may also take the catheter out later today. She should try to get up at 10:00, 2:00 and 6:00 today and then maybe again in the evening.
11:30 AM - I just spoke with Jennifer and she said that Courtney is having stronger back pain today and not wanting to sit up at all. Also her right side is really bothering her. The nurse requested the doctor to come look at a knot in her side. Before the doctor arrived, the suppository kicked in enough that Courtney willingly agreed to get up to go to the bathroom. She passed gas!! (another hurdle successfully passed). Then she sat in the chair for about twenty minutes. Even with the oral and extra pain meds given [with her continuous meds] she never seemed to get any relief from her back pain and continuously requested to get back in bed. She was up a total of 30 minutes before getting back into bed. Once the pain was under control, she was exhausted and just wanted to rest.
4:00 PM - After dozing most of the afternoon, Courtney once again agreed to get up only to go to the bathroom. Success! A HUGE hurdle passed [her bowels have previously been slow to wake up after surgery and caused many problems in the past]. She walked to the chair and sat for 15 more minutes, but once again couldn't get past the 30 minute total mark before she couldn't tolerate the pain and had to retreat to the bed. She had other food to eat, but ate a little pudding and sprite and laid down to rest.
Although today has been harder for her to tolerate the pain, every time up is good for her overall progress.... she is such a tough cookie.
6:00 PM - They stopped her continuous run of pain meds. She can push the button or get oral and/or IV pain meds every 4 hours. They also removed her folie [catheter] so now she must get up [with help] even to go pee.
9:00 PM - She really perked up this evening when Jennifer's uncle paid a visit followed by a surprise visit from her grandparents - better than any medicine pumped in her. We ate supper with Jennifer's dad and uncle, while her Mom stayed with Courtney. She got up one more time and walked to the bathroom (this was the first time that I got to help her get up and back in to bed). She was able to pee a little, but did not feel like sitting in the chair, so we let her get into bed. She had been asking to talk to Kelsey, so we called and she talked to her and told her good night. She had some Carnation to drink and then she was given her oral pain medicine and some medicine to help with nausea. She wanted to listen to a movie while she laid down, so I put in "Cars", one of our all time favorite Disney movies.
10:30 PM - She is sleeping good and hopefully will have her best night yet. :-) She is wanting to walk in the hall tomorrow and looking forward to a visit from Jennifer's aunt. Good night.
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