We're happy to report that yesterday's operation went very well!
The procedure was at 2:30 in the afternoon and took about two and a half hours. But, between anesthesia preparation, recovery, etc., I was away for five hours total. Naturally, I was asleep for most of this, but poor Gwyneth had to sit around for all that time!! Gwyneth's friend Rosemary Duvinage and her mother Joan helped to keep her company in the waiting room.
After surgery, I woke up with quite a bit of abdominal pain. Fortunately, the recovery room nursing team was very agressive and provided lots of pain medication, so I was much more comfortable within an hour or two. We were able to go up to my hospital room at about 8:30 PM.
As usual, I had several extra tubes coming out of me after surgery. One IV (for pain medication and fluids), one tube going through my nose and into my stomach (a nasogastric tube), one tube in my bladder, and one tube to drain fluid from the surgical bed (coming out through the skin). As you might expect, it's a little hard to move around with all of these hooked up to bags, pumps, suction, etc.! We were able to remove the nasogastric tube and bladder catheter early Friday morning (and I'm much more comfortable for it!!).
My incision runs from the bottom of my sternum (breast bone) to my belly button - about eight inches long. The dressing is still on, so I haven't actually seen the incision, but I'm told that they did a very nice job sewing me up.
Today, I'm only eating ice chips and taking sips of water. After abdominal surgery, your digestive tract generally shuts down for a while, so you have to slowly get it restarted. I'll have liquids tomorrow (Saturday), and solid food on Sunday. Hopefully, we'll be able to go home on Sunday, but we certainly should be out by Monday.
Thank you again for your support and prayers!
Robert and Gwyneth
