1 Week Post-Op

What a roller coaster ride the past week has been, but I can say that we have definitely made it over the mountain top.

Our first night home was feeling pretty great for a while. Unfortunately, momma didn't think about the fact that no nurse would be coming in to wake us every hour. I had no idea we would sleep so sound. I was suddenly woken by Lauren in terrible pain. After jumping off the couch (she's sleeping in the recliner), I realized it had been 7 hours since her last dose of Lortab...7 hours! Of course I ran to the kitchen to get her some relief, but it took about 30 minutes for her to feel the relief. I felt TERRIBLE. After that, I decided I would set my phone to wake me on the 4 hour mark...that worked MUCH better.

The second day home she had some pain but nothing like in the hospital (or the night before). She was still taking Lortab every 4 hours, and that was keeping her out of too much discomfort. She did, however, continue to cough and also started having occasional shooting pains under her right arm and sometimes under her left breast. I'm thinking it could have been muscle spasms. This continued through the second night, and by the 3rd morning she was having them more regularly.

Suddenly, about mid morning the 3rd day, she became the old Lauren...chatty, couldn't stay still, no longer needed my assistance with things like getting up out of the chair or going to the bathroom. All day she was totally different. She had some of her best friends come to visit, and that made her feel even better. We sat at the table and played board games, she sat at her computer, we went for a walk outside, it was like she had turned 180 degrees from where she had been just 24 hours earlier.

She took a shower and finally got a really good look at herself in the mirror. She's so pleased with what her chest looks like and how it feels. She made the comment that when she holds something up to her chest now (like a pillow, stuffed animal, book), she can feel it touching her chest...instead of nothing because of the funnel chest. She also noticed in the shower that her Nuss bar is protruding a little on her sides. You can actually feel it through her skin. She said it doesn't bother her, and I'm sure she won't even notice it there in a few weeks. Dr. Berch had told us it would be like that...he actually gave her some "growing room" when he put it in, so it should become less visible over the next 2-3 years.

It's our 3rd night, midnight, and she is sleeping soundly...still in the recliner...not sure how long it will be before she can sleep in the bed. She did have a few shooting pains along with some coughing right before bedtime, but it was nothing like yesterday...or even this morning, for that matter. I can see that she is well on her way to complete recovery.

Oh, yeah, this afternoon we started going 5-6 hours between Lortab doses with 2 ibuprofen between doses. Hopefully she won't be on the Lortab many more days.