Post Opt Night 6

Lacey has had another fairly good night and she rested pretty well. She was having some nausea early in the night but was able to get nausea med around 11pm which helped her nausea and also seemed to help her rest. She did wake up around 3am again with some back pain and so we walked down the hall to try to loosen up her muscles. She got back to bed around 4 and has rested well since that time. She is using less pain meds as the days pass, but remains quite uncomfortable. Her blood sugars are running very good, but the nurses still have to keep a check on it every hour, which is really bruising the tips of Lacey's fingers. She's had hourly blood sugar checks for nearly 6 days now so you can imagine how bad her fingers must hurt, but she hasn't complained a bit about that. Math tells me that's around 144 finger sticks this past week....no fun! They have kept the nasogastric tube clamped off all night to see how her stomach reacts without being empty all the time and she has done fairly well. We'll see how the day progresses and if the nausea keeps up, they may have to turn the tube back on to suction to keep her stomach empty. If her stomach can tolerate the natural fluids it produces, they will probably remove the nasogastric tube. Still haven't got much evidence that her intestines have started moving good yet so they'll force her to hold off on food and liquids until there is evidence that the stomach and intestines are ready to process food. Until that time, she will continue to get the TPN through her IV line in her neck so she has adequate nutrition until her stomach is ready for food.
So for now, we are still waiting and recovering and she continues to work hard and do exactly what the doctors tell her...she is a much better patient than I feel I would be. I admire her greatly and she will never know what an encouragement and inspiration she is to me (and many of you i'm sure).