09-09-09 10:45 pm pacific time..... update

Last night, the first of post surgery went about as well as these nights can. Emily has now had a lot of these the last few years. The nights go by at an odd pace, slow as a slug and then just rushing. The main theme is to try and find some rest and ease the post operation pain. While nothing like the transplant, this was still major. Emily did sleep quite a bit but was still hurting badly, she was slugged heavily with morphine. Many short sleeps interupted by sips of water, ice chips, ice bags, wet clothes etc. Morning started about 4:30 with and xray, soon followed by blood draw and then then parade of medical folks. The surgeons were happy, the pain folks tweaked some meds and called in some heavy hitters which eventually made the day much better .By the early afternoon Emily was able to get out of bed and sit up for a while and then this evening the first walk. Short but sweet with the familiar routine of pulling along the the whole hardware store for the brief parade round the floor. A good walk with the promise of more tomorrow. If all is well the one chest tube may come out tomorrow which should really help with discomfort. Last night was my night at the hospital and Peg is there tonight. There is a chair that expands into a single bed and it is not half bad in a better than sleeping on the floor sort of way. We are hoping for a boring night. We have had our excitement for this evening. Just before seven we went to the cafeteria for a quick meal Emily was so deep  asleep that she did not stir when we told her we were going to eat. It is a real trek to the cafeteria. Down three flights then a couple of hundred yards of hall and lobbies and then down two more flights. Kind of you can't get there from here. The hospital was very quiet and the dining room almost empty. Just as we were finishing the intercom started call for help on Five NE, one of us said something like thank goodness Em is on SE, to which the reply was, wrong we are on NE. So, we started walking pretty calmly back, but the intercom  was still requesting help, stat, as they say. We weren't too worried but still PR'ed on the five flights of stairs and hallways back up. The hallway was full of medical folks but not not anywhere near Emily's room. When we got to her room she was awake out of bed and feeling pretty darn good. Her nurse was just back in the room after responding to the emergency but not being needed. Ironically, she was Emily's nurse in Feb when Em had her middle of the night crisis and the current problem was in the same room Em was in then. We are pretty sure this person is ok, we sure hope so. We were awfully glad to see Emily just sitting there. Worried for the other patient but a bit giddy to see ours.

So, whew, for much ado about nothing but for some other family a big deal. Will post this now and hopefully again tomorrow. Emily has friends coming to visit tomorrow. This will be good.