The Calvary

It didn't take much to get the Calvary to come. Our nurse Susan took care of everything. After the third call concerning his surgery dressing and his pain level she mounted the charge herself by calling all the pertinent Doctors for new orders. The epidural was disconnected and a marvelous morphine pump was initiated. Clem was having so much pain that he had begun vomiting so she also shot him full of phenergan. Susan gave Clem about an hour on the pump to get his pain down and then had to change all of his surgical dressings and his ostomy bag because it had leaked everywhere.

It was an awful event. Clem was writhing in pain as all the tape was removed from his tender incision but he held my hand and we hit the morphine pump every eight minutes together. It took her about 45 minutes to complete the procedure and afterwards he was exhausted. He never had this sort of pain with his liver surgery. I suspect today was a series of events that built on each other and started with his epidural becoming ineffective for some reason. When the pain started so did the nausea and when the nausea took over and the vomiting began it intensified the pain until it was out of control.

Right now it is 1 a.m. and we are waiting for the nurse to change his IV bag so the alarm will stop and we may be able to actually sleep some. I am so keyed up right now that I may not be able to rest. I can't believe that the morphine has not put Clem to sleep but he does seem more relaxed now. He has been plagued with the hiccups today and you can imagine how that feels. They have been waking him up in his sleep.

Tonight I will say a prayer of thanks for Susan who geniunely cared about Clem's well being and went the extra mile to make him better. I will also mention the trash man who waited patiently for Clem and I to pass him in the hall and offered Clem a wish of speedy recovery and a heads up on the basketball game tonight on the tele and last but not least for all of you who allow me to vent my frustrations and fears in the early morning hours.