No Place Like Home

“There's no place like home, there's no place like home”, mutters Dorthy as she clicks her heels to leave the land of oz. My heels weren't clicking but my feet were walking soon after I woke up Friday morning following surgery.

Modern pain medicine is simply amazing, without it I doubt I could have gotten up and around so quickly but even with, that first contraction of my abdominal muscles to transition from a laying to sitting position was eye opening.

My first walk was with one of the nurses, a simple five minute jaunt up and down some dead end hallways complicated by the various tubes protruding from almost every orifice of my body. Even so I did well enough to receive the announcement, “I could walk with a family member on my next outing.” That was the good news, the bad was that the Cather I was sporting leaked all over me during the walk and a hole was found on the tube. I proposed we tape the hole with duck tape but no-one would hear of it. For Gods sake, where is good old American Spirit?

Thank goodness that the team of nurses who put in the new Cather could rival any number of NASCAR teams for a quick pit stop change. With their skillful “Low Impact Quick Change” I managed to get up several more times on Friday. On one of my walks I found a much better route, a loop that measures somewhere close to a quarter mile in total. Each walk started out slowly with me pushing the IV stand, holding the IV, the Pain Button and the Drainage bag in the other. The first few minutes were “warn up” until the stitches in my belly loosened up and allowed me to push the pace somewhat.

Saturday, I knew the key to getting “sprung” on Sunday would be to be as active as possible without being just plain stupid. I managed fourteen laps and was able to stay awake for most of the day to chat with family and friends who dropped in. The day went well and at eight o'clock in the evening the nurses pulled the Cather. FREEDOM ! LET FREEDOM RING ! Now all I had to do was pee in next four hours to maintain that freedom. At ten thirty, watching with Sue the movie, “The Pelican Brief” my freedom was assured. Ahhhhhh

After a night of almost no pain medication I started to notice Sunday morning more of my body awakening to the fact that some drastic changes has occurred. Sunday was also when my pain medication would be downgraded, but perhaps for the good as I would have no decision in the delivery. It all seemed to work well and when the Doc saw me sometime after lunch he saw no reason to keep me any longer.

Click your heels Michael, your going home!