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Prayers, please! My son is having surgery at 8 a.m.


RoughCollie
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My son Stephen is having surgery at 8 a.m. I would appreciate prayers and good thoughts for him, the surgeon, and the other medical care providers. I'd also appreciate prayers for the long-term success of the surgery; the success rate is only 50%.

 

He'll be coming home afterward. I remember when this surgery necessitated a weeklong hospital stay. Recovery period is long (6-8 weeks total), and there is a lot of pain during the first couple of weeks. He has a very low pain threshold, and I am going to do my best to persuade the surgeon to prescribe something that will actually work. That 325/5 percocet didn't do much for the pain last month when Stephen had surgery for a different problem, even when I gave him Motrin between doses, as the doctor suggested.

 

My husband took Stephen to the hospital and will stay with him until I get there. I have to clean Stephen's room before I go, now that he's out of it.

 

I hope Stephen's insurance covers a visiting nurse as the wound care will be complicated, and I don't know anything about it. Those are my two biggest worries: Stephen's pain and wound care.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

RC

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Thank you so much for your prayers. Stephen is home from the hospital already! He was ready leave when I arrived, but getting the paperwork done took awhile. His pain level is 2 or 3, and I'm trying to get him to go to bed. He woke up from anesthesia cheerful and talkative, as always.

 

The surgery took longer than expected because the problem was bigger than the surgeon expected it to be. As a consequence, wound care will be easy, not complicated, because the wound is closed and has a drain. If left open, I would have had to pack it with guaze three times a day.

 

I scheduled this for today so that the surgeon would be available all week, in case Stephen needs more pain meds. Right now, he's fine mostly because of the meds they gave him during surgery.

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So far, so good. Stephen still hasn't gone to bed, and we've been home for nearly 9 hours. When I finally persuade him to go to bed, I'm going to send his cell phone with him so he can call me if he needs anything at all in the middle of the night.

 

His pain level on painkillers is mild right now. The worst pain will be during the next 4 days. I scheduled the surgery for today so the surgeon would be available to prescribe a stronger drug than percocet 325/5 if necessary. Luckily, this all took place locally. Last month when Stephen had surgery, it was in Pittsburgh and the doctor wouldn't prescribe a stronger pain med unless we bought Stephen to his office -- and a long car trip the day or two after surgery would have been too painful for him. We handled it with pain meds we already had at home, which were a stronger version of the same med.

 

We really appreciate your prayers and kind words. Thank you very much! You all are the best!

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I had a good idea last night. I set the alarms on S's cell phone to go off when he had to take his pain meds at 12:30, 4:30, and 8:30. Since the longest stretch those meds will last is 6 hours, I woke him up at 2:30 to make absolutely sure that he had taken the 12:30 dose. He had, and he went right back to sleep. I didn't want to take the chance that he had turned off the alarm and left himself without pain meds on board.

 

Using a cell phone alarm is easy. I'd never done it before, but man, it can be useful!

 

Thanks again for your prayers. Today is the test day to see if the pain meds are sufficiently strong.

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