Lee reporting:
Day 2 was rather shakier than Day 1. This was not altogether unexpected. You see, the narcotics in the spine wear off after 24 hours. The first difficulty was sitting up to eat breakfast. She became light-headed (perhaps because of pain pills, perhaps because of the excitement of seeing a sausage biscuit) and had to be hustled back to bed. Her blood pressure was also low enough to cause some concern, but this is pretty common after surgery.
Over the course of the day, her blood pressure improved, and she never had another case of the vapors. She took a couple of good walks around the JCR -- 130 feet the first time, 180 the second. Getting into and out of the bed remained difficult, but there were no more scary popping noises. (The surgeon said yesterday's popping noises were probably a couple of stitches coming loose. This was meant to be reassuring.)
As the day wore on, pain became a big problem. Pain killers help some, but she hurts right now. After I got home, she called to say insult had been added to injury: the night nurse was mean, hurrying her into and out of bed, yanking her leg, and bitching when Louise yelled in pain. So you know what? I don't like this person. Uh uh. No sir. Her shift was over at eleven, so with some luck she has by now ridden her broomstick out of our lives never to be seen again.
Tomorrow Louise will go to the bathroom, use her forearm crutches, and climb some stairs. Then she'll be ready to come home, probably sometime in the afternoon. She's apprehensive about this, but I know she's tough. And the kids and I can't wait to have her home again.
