The Adventures of Surgery

Dustin's surgery Monday morning went fairly well. It was longer and more extensive than first expected but he was sent home a couple hours after the surgery. They had given him a local block on his shoulder to basically numb it before he left the hospital and they warned us that it would be wearing off in about 10-12 hours so not to hesitate taking some pain medication at the first sign of pain. I was poking pain pills down Dustin's throat as frequently as was allowed but nothing was helping curb the pain after the block had worn off. He finally slept for about two hours but then woke up in even more intense pain. Dustin doesn't take pain medication...ever...not even when he got his wisdom teeth taken out so I know he was in a lot of pain. I called his surgeon and he advised us to head to the emergency room. So off we went to the hospital at 1AM. It was a painful drive in for Dustin. Every bump, turn and jostle was painful. He was admitted to the hospital and pumped full of pain killers. I watch the relief spread over his pale face as they injected the drugs lol he could never be a drug user and get away with it. He was instantly out for a couple hours. I stayed for the first couple hours until the nurse came to give him his second dose and then headed home to get a few hours of sleep. I was supposed to be back to work on Tuesday for a few hours because we had a lab meeting but I was at the hospital instead. My boss understood, thankfully. I didn't sleep much Monday night and it sure was hard seeing my strong able bodied husband laying there in bed in so much pain...and worst of all not being able to do anything for him so my nerves were shot. They insisted that it was ok to bring him home yesterday after a full day in the hospital on pain meds. I really didn't want to risk it but apparently once its documented that the pain is stabilized the insurance stops paying for things. He had his color back and was talking in between his comatose states from the drugs so they finally convinced me that they would prescribe him strong strong strong drugs, the strongest they could and send us on our way. We got home and everything was going ok for a few hours but the drugs they prescribed were a generic of what they were giving him in the hospital and for some reason they weren't working....ugh! At this point it became rather hilarious to me. I was delirious from lack of sleep and really felt like a zombie. I got dressed again and prepared to head back to the hospital again, thinking I should find his nurse and doctor and strangle them. We called the doctor's office and talked to the on call doc. He was appalled at the amount of pain killers that Dustin was on and really had no explanation why they weren't working now that we were home....he said it couldn't be because they were the generic brand...anyway he said that Dustin could take 3 ib-profen and 2 Tylenol at once to get him through to his next dose of pain meds. Thankfully that was the secret and it worked wonders because he has been feeling much better since. He even has his sarcasm back so I know he's more himself :) So that's the Landreth adventures for the past few days. I'm just glad its over with....well the surgery part anyway but there is still a long way to recovery.