Tuesday 11/21 - Surgery Recovery Update

Hello, Francis again. Jane continues her recovery at Johns Hopkins. She was one night in the ICU after surgery for closer monitoring then moved to a normal hospital room, where she has resided since. All things considered, so far the recovery has gone quite well. She has had pain, especially as medicines have been changed and new equilibria reached, but it was a major surgery and so some pain is pretty unavoidable (one doctor actually mentioned that this surgery was basically the largest orthopedic surgery they do!).

Yesterday was a big day. The epidural was removed as well as the intravenous pain medicine pump - she went from two pain buttons to push to zero. Her pain meds are all oral now, which is good because that is what she will go home with. She also had her first physical therapy yesterday; after being on bed rest and horizontal for 5 days, she sat up (with assistance) on the side of the bed. This activity, combined with the changing of the meds, caused a brief period of pretty intense pain before she was able to rebalance on a higher dose of oral pain meds.

Today Jane made the further jump of standing up for the first time. She's smiling in the picture, but it was quite a struggle to get there! The nurses installed a trapeze like structure so she can use her arms to help leverage her up.

Jane will hopefully only be in the hospital a few more nights. Then she will be transferred to a facility more focused on rehabilitation and mobility (so, lots more physical therapy).

Hope everyone is doing well and Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
Francis

 

Comments

  1. EllenNovember 21, 2017 at 5:46 PM

    Happy Thanksgiving, Jane! Great to hear the surgery is now behind you and to see you up and smiling!!

    ReplyDelete

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