Late last night and into this morning Sam and I were rehashing what Dr. Wong told us and going through all of Sam's aches and pains from being on the table for so long. The first thing to really bug him was his arms. His arms were extended and tied down during the procedure making them incredibly sore for him. I would periodically get up and try and massage them to keep them from cramping up. Sam had to lay flat all night in order for his groin to start to heal up before he was able to sit up or walk.
Sam's nurse would come in every hour and check his catheter site for swelling, make sure a hematoma didn't start to form and checked his blood to see if his level had dropped below 190 in order for the tubes to be removed. He was able to get them removed at 3:45am. A few nurses came in to do this and after the tubes came out the charge nurse had to apply pressure on his groin for 30 minutes to ensure the 3 small holes would clot. However, since Sam was placed back on his blood thinner medication right after he woke up it wasn't that easy for the sites to clot. At 4:30am the nurse was able to alleviate her pressure (her fingers were numb) and place a sandbag on Sam's groin (sounds so great right?). The sand bag had to stay on for at least an hour and then he wasn't able to get up or move his bed until 8:30am. Needless to say there wasn't much sleeping during all of this as they had to do constant vital checks and incision area checks. I finally fell asleep in my upright hospital chair in the most ridiculous position at about 6am - I think I was annoyed there was nothing going on with Facebook and had run out of things to do. Sam & I both got about an hour of sleep (it felt pretty amazing).
Just before Sam was able to get out of bed I ran downstairs for some much needed Starbucks and got him some fruit and breakfast items from Papa Joe's. At 8:30am his nurse came in and he was FINALLY able to get out of bed and stretch - he was mad at the midnight nurse for not even letting him move just a pinch. Once he got to finally walk a bit he felt a lot of pressure off of his chest and started to feel a little better. BUT since he was flat on his back from 11:30am 5/31 to 8:30am 6/1 his right butt check was blessed with a sore from not being able to move. This currently hurts Sam more than his groin and made making him comfortable a real challenge.
We got home around 4pm and spent about an hour trying to find the right pillows and positions on the couch for Sam to be comfortable. He finally fell asleep after all of the adjusting and I was able to sneak in a few winks as well. We were told by the discharge nurse that tomorrow will be the peak of his pain - he will start to feel a burning sensation in his chest from the ablations and overall feel like he played in traffic. He isn't allowed to drive until Sunday and isn't allowed to lift anything over 10lbs for a few days. I on the other hand have been building muscle by assisting him up and down.
We have switched sides of the bed to make it easier for Sam to get in/out. His incision sites are occasionally leaking so I have been changing his bandages frequently. Its really difficult when he is on blood thinners and they want these small holes to clot but he has to keep moving... sigh.
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