Just got home from seeing Rich. He looks really good!
I finally saw the incision on his leg from where they harvested veins, tissue and skin…it runs from the top of his leg, almost down to his knee and is stapled closed. It is quite larger than I expected. He still has a drain in his jaw and one on his leg, but they removed the one from his neck today. Tomorrow, they plan on removing the trach tube and replacing it with a smaller one and hopefully by the end of the week, he may be able to whisper and perhaps eat a bit of real food.
The liquid nutrition they are giving him through the feeding tube is upsetting his stomach, but that is probably related to the antibiotics and the pain medications.
He was in pretty good spirits considering the pain that he is still experiencing. He said the difference between the pain before the surgery and the pain now is that now he has a button that he can press and a nurse will come and give him medication. They had him walk today and he went about half way down the hall. That may not seem like much, but when you remember that there are at least 91 rooms on his floor, it’s a really, really long hallway.
He has figured out how to cough through the trach tube and then suction it himself without calling anyone for help. He’s nervous about them changing the tube on his trach tomorrow because he knows it’s going to hurt a lot, but he knows that if he can walk, eat and get rid of the trach, he can come home.
Our prayers now are for his pain levels to decrease, continued healing, and for God to calm his nervousness about the upcoming chemo/radiation treatments.
Good Night and Thank you all!!!
