Update: Rudi's Surgery
Friday, October 2, 2009 by Amy
Well, Rudi is doing great. We dropped the kids off at school and actually got to the hospital early. We found a parking spot right away in the free parking garage which NEVER happens. Everything went well, although his surgery started late. I left at 2-ish to pick the girls up at school and Rudi was still in surgery holding where I couldn't be with him anyway. I took the girls immediately with me to the hospital (okay, we stopped at Wendy's first, the girls were starving) and we got there at about 5:30. Rudi wasn't out yet, so we went to pick up his prescription at the pharmacy. When we came back, he was out. Riley was a little stunned/scared when she saw the oxygen thingies in his nose. In Colorado Springs, being 6000+ feet altitude, there are a lot of people who walk around all the time with oxygen, so she was afraid that Daddy was going to be one of them (those people always look so old and fragile and sickly, and quite frankly a tad creepy too). I assured her that it wasn't permanent. The girls were also nervous about his IV, and would only touch his hand with one finger so they didn't pull on the IV. Since we didn't get to the hospital until 5:30pm, there were tons of empty meter spaces right in front of the hospital entrance, so getting him to the car was easy.
He has four (or is it 5?) small incisions. He is in very good spirits and refused the pain medication, although I left him 2 asprin on his table in case he needs them. He doesn't seem to be in much pain, just sore. Fingers crossed. He is able to go to the bathroom by himself, but will need help getting dressed for a while. He isn't supposed to pick up anything over 25 lbs. for 6 weeks.
Oh, at the pre-op two weeks ago, they discovered that he has umbilical hernia as well. They said nothing about repairing it, just noted it. Well, when we got the homecare instructions from the nurse, she mentions that they took care of the hernia while they were in there. How nice. Two for one! Actually, it is really cool knowing how nervous Rudi gets about stuff like that.
I'm bushed, to be honest. To Denver and back twice in a day is quite a bit of driving. My butt is sore. Dude, we're talking around 6 hours of driving. I don't want to drive for a while. I had to run to the store after getting the girls to bed in order to get Rudi some soft food for his post-op diet. Seriously, I'm tired, but I'll stay up a while in case Rudi needs me. I'll probably just fall asleep on the chair until one of the girls wakes me up.
Side note, Avery only really nurses at night now. Holy cow, she's getting big! Well, not big physically, but mentally...
Oh my goodness, Rudi just told me that the Metropolitan Opera is broadcasting Tosca live in HD next week! Eeeeeeeeekkkkk!!!!! I just bought tickets. Ah, sweetness. Tosca is my absolute favorite. I've already seen it three times in performance and I have the libretto virtually memorized. Ah, this will be great...if Rudi can survive watching the girls or 4 hours while I sit on my duff in a movie theater drooling over my favorite opera. At least I can wear sweatpants so I will be comfortable, unlike getting all fancied up for a performance.
He has four (or is it 5?) small incisions. He is in very good spirits and refused the pain medication, although I left him 2 asprin on his table in case he needs them. He doesn't seem to be in much pain, just sore. Fingers crossed. He is able to go to the bathroom by himself, but will need help getting dressed for a while. He isn't supposed to pick up anything over 25 lbs. for 6 weeks.
Oh, at the pre-op two weeks ago, they discovered that he has umbilical hernia as well. They said nothing about repairing it, just noted it. Well, when we got the homecare instructions from the nurse, she mentions that they took care of the hernia while they were in there. How nice. Two for one! Actually, it is really cool knowing how nervous Rudi gets about stuff like that.
I'm bushed, to be honest. To Denver and back twice in a day is quite a bit of driving. My butt is sore. Dude, we're talking around 6 hours of driving. I don't want to drive for a while. I had to run to the store after getting the girls to bed in order to get Rudi some soft food for his post-op diet. Seriously, I'm tired, but I'll stay up a while in case Rudi needs me. I'll probably just fall asleep on the chair until one of the girls wakes me up.
Side note, Avery only really nurses at night now. Holy cow, she's getting big! Well, not big physically, but mentally...
Oh my goodness, Rudi just told me that the Metropolitan Opera is broadcasting Tosca live in HD next week! Eeeeeeeeekkkkk!!!!! I just bought tickets. Ah, sweetness. Tosca is my absolute favorite. I've already seen it three times in performance and I have the libretto virtually memorized. Ah, this will be great...if Rudi can survive watching the girls or 4 hours while I sit on my duff in a movie theater drooling over my favorite opera. At least I can wear sweatpants so I will be comfortable, unlike getting all fancied up for a performance.
