Change in Room Location

There is a certain heaviness or pressure that has to do with convalescing. It affects the patient and almost everyone around them. I feel it as a lack of enthusiasm, a beaten down state after fighting a battle for a war you aren't sure you won.

When Melissa and I moved into our temporary suites in Dallas, we didn't really recognize our surroundings. We were trying to save money, be frugal, and frankly, from the perspective of four healthy eyes and two unwounded people, our rooms were just fine 'cause we were all we needed. However, now that I have been released it is different.

There's that heaviness I mentioned before, add a convalescent who can't lift a hand to help, add a supporting wife who has suffered her own wounds in being there for me, and I saw our surroundings with completely different eyes. The stovetop didn't work, there was a funky smell, the room was all one piece (in fact, the front door was at the foot of the bed). As Melissa moved around the little crappy suite and as I watched her make due with just one more minor insufficiency, I lost my cool, got on the phone, and made reservations at an extended stay facility that is run by the Hilton.

I will grant you the room is more expensive, but the Suite has a separate bathroom, bedroom, living room, and full kitchen. It smells wonderful. They serve breakfast every morning and dinner every evening. I calculated the expense in food out of the price of the room and we are spending about 11 percent more staying here.

And the internet works at full broadband speeds. They even have staff to help Melissa unload the car and put stuff in our room.

The pall of recuperation has been lifted, the healing has begun, and best of all, I put a smile back on my wife's face... And THAT is priceless.

G'night for now from sleepytown. Everyone be safe and know that you all are in our thoughts.

K
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New "After" Picture

I am healing apace. I am ready to be discharged again and am waiting on the doc to finish the discharge paperwork.
Here is me with a bit of a headache (thus the icepack on top of my head).
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Kurt Again!

Well, that post sucked! I just erased a horrid bunch of nonsense.

So, here are the pros: I think I am ready to be released again.
I am eating solid foods again.
My headache pain is manageable and I am on no pain meds.
I am only due to be in town for another 6 days or so. We leave Friday.
I get my staples out on Wednesday.
I have an excellent support staff: my wife, my mom, my dad, his wife, all my wonderful nurses on 5th floor south tower. (Thanks Jenny, Ginnette, Chi, Wendy, Hilary, LaShanda, and everyone else who took care of me on 5 South.)

The cons:
Melissa is getting sick herself. She may have a difficult time taking care of me.
I have started having horrific nightmares. Every time I close my eyes off I go into the worst terrors I have ever had.
My left eye still will not open. A lot of swelling around my face still.

Other than that evrything is super. I just wanted to post to let you know I was alive.

Thanks for thinking if me. I really do apprecite it.

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It's no wonder

When someone hacks on your skull for 8 hours, it's really not surprising that you develop a migraine. I'm just sayin'.

So 12 hours after Kurt was released, we came back to the ER and it was finally determined he has a migraine. Can't stand any amount of light or sound, nauseous, just wanting to lay very still in a dark quiet room. Yep, that's a migraine. It took me a while to convince the doctors that's probably what was going on.

Then the pain med fiasco started. I'll let Kurt post about that himself. In brief, the various pain meds did not reduce the pain whatsoever and they did make him throw up. OUCH for the cranium that was just operated on!

So he's off all the pain meds now just trying to ride out the migraine til it's run its course. He's also on anti-nausea meds every 4 hours. Hopefully he will be back on solid foods soon so he can get out of here. The new countdown is Days Until We Come Home: 7.

Thanks to everyone for such an amazing outpouring of generosity. Sometimes a person might feel like others don't really come thru like they should. In this case, I have seen so much support and generosity and I am ever so grateful for the meals, the full gas tank, the support, having other people here so I don't have to spend 24-7 at Kurt's bedside, and just having other folks I can talk to. It has helped me so much by feeling that others are in this with me. I could not have made it thru all of this in a strange city in a yucky cheap motel room if I had to be here alone. So thank you to everyone for your prayers and support. I am so grateful.

Now if Kurt will just get over this bump in the road, we can get home to our kitties who I miss so very much but are being well taken care of. Thanks everyone!
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Discharged!

Things have been up, things have been down, I'm outta there!

Medically I appear to be fit. My complaints of pain have been relegated to "my head". As if we didn't know.

The pain that I am experiencing has all been of the headache variety. I am not having much skin pain, incision pain, etc. And the pain during the days, for the most part, has been manageable. I got up and walked, improved motility and swelling is coming down as expected.

So everyone expected me to be released today. Last night was a bit different. We aggressively attacked some plumbing issues I was having during the day yesterday and I paid out the results last night. Like a slot machine I kept paying out the jackpot over and over again. I missed dinner last night because of it.

I cramped fairly badly so took my pain meds and other associated meds as well.

Here is a sidenote on pain meds: I was on injection Fentanyl, darvocet or percocet. I could have the injection every two hours but was discouraged from taking it. I could have the pills every 4 to 6 hours but again discouraged. The Fentanyl worked for about an hour but made me itch. I never felt ANY indication that the narcotic pills were working. I finally got my doctors to change my pain meds to Narco. Hydrocodone plus Tylenol. A combination that still produces very little pain management.

So they added Zanex (sp?) and Ambien to the list so I could get some sleep. Because up to that point, I had no slept more than an hour and a half at a time. I took my first zanex and ambien the night I transferred out of ICU. I slept all night but had a HARD time waking up. Felt like a bad hangover. But I eventually got up and around and entertained a room full of people most of the day.
Then came last night. I skipped dinner, ejected all my coins (see above simile for reference), couldn't eat much for breakfast at all and woke up from an Ambien,Zanex,Narco-induced stupor hazy as heck, lethargic and hungover with sensitivity to light and sound and I have not been able to shake it off all day. I have slept more today to escape the nausea-clouded pain than I have since being put in the hospital. And they released me today.

So, to summarize, I think I may have made quite a few poor decisions in my care. I should have demanded better pain management, never taken so much stuff to loosen your plumbing, never taken an Ambien, or Zanex, or the combination... And maybe I should not let them have discharged me today. I do not feel right.

I am in no way hungry, force myself to gorge down the lightest of foods, sit as still as I possibly can and try not to move thid ice pack on my head. I got up to take a walk a while ago and have never felt more brittle. My head is squishy, the internal pressure behind my eyes and nose feel enormous and I feel like my ability to manage my pain with the tools they gave me at the hospital are not working well.

Hopefully this is just a huge pile of "woe, is me". I hope it is. Tomorrow will bring better things. But for now, it's back to sleep, pray the pain goes away.
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Change In Room Location

I've been moved. I overstayed my welcome and was moved off of ICU to South Tower 5th floor. If you want my room telephone #, comment and I will give it to you. Then, for only $2.99 a minute, you and I can chat... LIVE!

Wait a minute. That paragraph went south really fast. Sorry about that.

ICU certainly had nurse availability down pat. I've been waiting for 2 hours for a nurse so far. Nothing yet.

Have a great day!
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3 Days Post-Op

Good morning. I have been out of surgery for about 60 hours. I have learned a few things.

It hurts more at night.

Injections are better than pills but don't last as long.

Neurosurgeons don't like talking about anxiety. They refer you to the hospitalist.

No matter how much pain your in, what time of day it is, it's always better when your loved ones are around.

I asked my craniofacial guy how many screws and plates they put in and he said the manufacturing company would be sending Christmas Cards for many years to come.

The mass has been sent to pathology but no report yet. I'll try to send an after picture.
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