Follow Up, Follow Through

Deb spent her second night upstairs in our bed versus downstairs on the sofa, so I think she's trying to get back into her routine as best she can.  That includes her morning shower before breakfast and wearing her own regular pants instead of my old hospital scrubs.  She is still wearing my button-front shirts, though, if only because they are plenty big and not restricting her at all.  That's fine.  I have plenty of those.

We went down to the Nordstrom Tower (northern end of the Swedish Hospital campus) today for Deb's recheck appointment with one of the surgeon's nurses (or is she a PA? To be honest, I never saw her name tag).  She took Deb's vitals first, of course, and then looked at the records I'd been keeping on Deb's drain production.  She agreed that the two upper drains were ready to are removed, but as we expected she wants to leave the two in Deb's abdomen (since they are still producing enough to keep them in - they have outlived their welcome, but sadly not their usefulness).  Deb has another appointment scheduled for Friday now, and we hope both drains will be gone after that.  It's possible that only one - or even neither - will be removed, but let's stick with hope, OK?

We are back home after stopping to pick up Five Guys (Deb has been having a burger craving) and Deb moved to her chair to watch Netflix on her iPad while I went out to continue painting the front porch and then finished off the laundry from yesterday.  She's dozing now, so I will wait until she's awake again before I go to the grocery store (she may have some specifics that she wants me to get).  But I'll have to go before I can make dinner.  I used the last of the fresh vegetables for dinner last night.  Except the beets.  But Deb doesn't really like beets unless I grill them using my 'ancient Scottish secret' method (no, I'm not Chinese - for those of you who get the reference).  Too bad I ran out of charcoal.

Deb's update:
- Two drains are now gone (Yay!) and two remain (Boo!). The two remaining are the ones that are located to create the most hassle, of course.
- Deb is starting to try to cut back on the OxyContin as of today.  It may not work out yet, but she's giving it a go (making up the reduced dose with some Tylenol).
- One week out from the initial surgery and she's starting to be able to stand a little straighter, but isn't yet fully upright.  That will continue to improve over the next week or two.
- Deb's healing is coming along well along all of her incision lines, though the navel area is still a bit angry.  That may take another week or two to resolve.

So, the plan is to just hold steady, keep to the plan, and allow healing to take it's own pace.