Day 1 after Surgery

Tuesday, Jan 25, 2010 Carl was at Froedtert Hospital all day recovering from yesterday's surgery. Carl is exhausted, and it hurts him to move, even with the pain medications he is taking. Talking is 'draining'. Carl lies really still in bed after finding a "comfortable" position. Carl "graduated" from PT (Physical Therapy) this morning after he walked, climbed stairs, and got in and out of bed a couple of times for the physical therapist. Carl's neurological surgeon (spine surgeon) came in a talked to him for a few minutes, and reiterated that the surgery was very successful. Carl didn't want any phone calls or visits, although he did get to talk to his dad for a few minutes on the phone. He didn't watch TV, and mostly slept. Recover Carl!

A friend who has also had neck surgery told me that she remembers being given the benchmark that for each hour a person is out under a general anesthetic, it takes 1 week to recover, and that it is preferable to separate general anesthetic procedures by a week. I think avoiding a surgeon is probably preferable. I do not want to try and calculate how long Carl was out under general anesthetic.

Angiogram with Embolization Done!

Carl's Angiogram procedure was successful and ended about 8:10 PM, on Friday, Jan 21, 2011. This is the first time that Carl has been knocked out with a general anesthetic, unless maybe when he was a baby. All other procedures (2 biopsies, and the port placement, etc.) have always been done with local anesthetic. Carl came off the anesthetic and had a breathing tube removed around 8:30 PM. The procedure went very well according to the Doc.

More later.