Teddy’s Surgery Journal, Part 3

Happy Black Friday! I’m not selling you anything!

I just wanted to give what’s probably going to be the last update on Teddy for awhile. Long story short- he’s doing really well, so all the progress now will just be slow and steady with hopefully no surprises. We’ll start where the last post left off and move forward to today.

Monday Evening

Teddy continued to do well Monday evening. He was a bit gaggy in the evening, and had a minuscule appetite (I think I at more of his hospital meals than he did) but kept down what he did eat and drink and his usual daily medications. He didn’t want pain meds overnight and was fine- phew! I finally took the time to research the antibiotic he was on and realized that the most common side effects matched all his GI symptoms and the strange itching. I was relieved to finally understand what was bothering him (and since the antibiotics were stopped after the drain was removed on Sunday, it explained why he was markedly improved on Monday.)

Tuesday

We were both up early and the surgeon was in to see us before breakfast. He checked the wound and changed the dressing on Teddy’s back and gave us the okay for discharge. We will need to keep the wound covered until our follow-up on December 22. If I remember correctly, Fulton had a different kind of dressing on his wound, plus nursing care, so I didn’t need to change anything. This is really the only different aspect to our discharge instructions from last time. We left late morning and although Tony and I were worreid about how Teddy would handle the drive home, he did great with minimal discomfort (vs Fulton who threw up from pain on the drive home after his surgery). In fact, Teddy stayed up in his chair for most of the day once we got home.

He definitely doesn’t seem to be in as much pain and discomfort as Fulton was at this point. I don’t think it’s because he has a higher tolerance, I genuinely think he’s in less pain. The hardest part is when he’s laying in bed and getting repositioned at night, getting dressed, or otherwise moved around. His chair seems to be the most comfortable place for him, which again is just so different from our experience with Fulton (who preferred the comfort of his bed).

The rest of the week.

Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with Thanksgiving preparation, the majority of which were completed by my mom. Tony and I only prepared a few pies and purchased some locally produced libations. We’ve received, and appreciated greatly!, meals from friends. Our freezer is still pretty well stocked. Fulton and Teddy were off school both weeks, and Edie was off all of this week.

Tony picked Addie up at the bus station Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. It was a great Thanksgiving, in which I took zero photos. We ate tons of food, watched the Macy’s parade and football, and generally enjoyed being together as a family. I’m maintaining the lazy tempo through this weekend. We’re not driving Teddy anywhere for a bit yet, so we’re focused on family activities at homes for the remainder of Addie’s visit. We played Secret Hitler (my lone affiliate link) last night (highly recommended!), and today as I write this, everyone is on Minecraft…yelling loudly (for reasons unrelated to physical pain). I think we’ll do a bonfire at some point. So long as Teddy remains comfortable, and there’s no surprises (i.e. infection, wound re-opening, etc.) I hoping we can ease into Advent and December and get through this recovery without any problems.

Thank you (again) for all your prayers! Please continue to pray that there are no surprises, that his pain and discomfort (specifically in the evening and overnight) continue to lessen, and that his appetite and stomach discomfort improve too.