Officially being discharged from Butterworth after 4 days of post-surgical care. From what I understand, the procedure to place the drainage tube in my lung, went well. The location of the hole made the procedure tricky because of some main arteries located in that area, but they were able to go in through my back to place the tube instead, and the hole is expected to heal over the next few weeks. They were able to get the trapped air and what looked to be a lot of blood out of my lung and my lung did re-inflate in the affected areas, so they were able to remove the tube late last night. OUCH!
I don’t actually remember much of the past few days because the IV meds kind of kept me in a fog……. Which I am thankful for, because now that the IV meds are wearing off, I am realizing how right my nurses were in warning me that this would be a very very painful process. Wowers! I won’t lie, I have been through A LOT of painful surgeries, but this one, is right up there on the pain scale. Either way, it way more then I prepared myself for, and I was bummed to hear that it will hurt like this for a good few weeks.
While admitted I did have a few visitors, including one who came with flowers in hand and happened to be from Spectrum Heath’s Marketing department, but mostly, I spent 4 days in bed; resting, healing, relaxing, and sleeping, which if you know me at all, you know that none of these actions happen often. So you know I’m on the right track. I will see my surgeon in a few weeks for repeat CT scans and chest X-rays to see if surgery was a full success, but for now I’ll be on the couch hoping to feel more like myself soon!!!!