Saturday: day 4

Today started out slowly as I didn’t get much sleep but as the day progressed,  I also made quite a bit of progress.

Biggest wins: I had two of the drains removed and all of my IVs are out. My calcium is in a normal range right now,  which is a big thing after this kind of surgery. They poke me to monitor that every 6 hours.

I also decreased the amount of pain medicine (Tylenol 3/ with codeine) I’ve been taking. I did several walks around the hospital for today too. While I feel silly walking around in my socks and gown, it does feel good to move my body a little.

I know that all these things are huge.  My doctors are happy with my progress,  as am I.

Frustrations that still exist are difficulty breathing,  which is to be expected when you have your chest cut open, but it is difficult to deal with the moment to moment implications.  My right lip has some nerve damage so I look a bit funny and it feels a bit funny when I try to smile. The doctor says this should get better with time, and I really hope so. I also got my period,  which is just generally unfair of the universe, 😆 but also good to know normal functions are still in check.

The food situation has been a little difficult because for some reason they have me on a cardiac friendly and diabetic diet (I’m not diabetic). So that coupled with my gluten free preference leaves me with very few options. Jeremy might have to go on a Smoothie run tomorrow cause I don’t think I can take another meal of grilled chicken!

My nurse team today was insanely nice. I’m grateful to them for all of their help and encouragement.

The calcium and last drain are the biggest concerns keeping me here, so we’ll just see how things go tomorrow. Jeremy just left to get himself dinner and hopefully a good night’s sleep and so I’m just hoping to get some rest.

We’re so grateful for all of the continued support and hopefully we’ll see another productive day tomorrow!