Hi, it's Lisa writing from Massachusetts where I've been visiting for Thanksgiving. Susie and I ended up driving back to the hospital last night when we heard from the recovery room nurse that Beth was looking for Sue. We were very glad we did because, contrary to what we had been told to expect, she was wide awake and experiencing pain. It took a little while but the anaesthesiologist adjusted the dosage in the epidural and she got some relief. We kept her company and fed her ice chips and tried to distract her with a few funny stories.
After she returned to her room around 1:30 am we camped out there and tried to support her as best we could, despite our status as outlaw visitors (visiting hours end at 8 pm). Beth is an amazing advocate for herself--despite her frustration and pain she manages to hold so much information about her situation and share it so clearly and tactfully with her caregivers. It feels challenging that there are always new nurses and other caregivers who don't know Beth's recent medical history, which has to be explained yet again. And recent complications have created a certain amount of mistrust. She managed to sleep from 3:30 to 5:30 am, when someone came in to check on her.
The epidural seems to be managing the pain from the surgery well, and Beth looks pretty good this morning despite it all. She enjoyed a fruit cup for breakfast after four days of clear liquid diet, and yesterday not even that as she waited all day for surgery. Let's all hope her body will heal smoothly from this operation and she'll be able to get the chest drain out on schedule in a couple of days, and return home soon after that. Thank you for your love and support.
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