I slept well in bed until around 2am and then I found I couldn’t easily get back to sleep. I just couldn’t find a restful position after that so headed back to the recliner by 4am. My weight was also up slightly over 2 pounds in 2 days. This is something I was instructed to watch for because it could mean that I’m suddenly retaining fluids which could mean all sorts of medically concerning things. Since I am prone to worry, I tend to presume the worst and that made it hard for me to get back to sleep as well. The most likely explanation is that I’m constipated again which is partly my body still waking up and partly the pain meds. But I’ll be a good patient and reach out to my surgeon’s office.
I also started drinking a lot more water. Up to yesterday, a pair of meds I was on was meant to continue pulling water out of me as a post surgical procedure and now that is over with, I need to drink more.
My surgeon’s office is of course closed on Saturday and this didn’t seem like a life threatening emergency nor even urgent so I bounced over to the Kaiser’s advice nurse line. I think it was someone new or inexperienced. Or I’m suddenly used to how professional and top of their game the cardiac people are so far. The call eventually got to the nurse reading me several lists of worst case scenario symptoms that I might have and me assuring her I didn’t have any. That alone was at least helpful for me because now I know what to be worried about. No swellings (rather no new swellings), no fever, no separating chest incision, no pus, no oozing, no pain so unbearable I can’t speak (um, I’m speaking to you now…), etc. Finally she wanted to check with her ER doc and would be back to me within 5 minutes and please stay on the line. In my imagination the ER doc rolled his or her eyes and said tell him to call his surgeon Monday, he sounds ok. But I was probably being impatient again. Soon after, drinking a lot of water helped matters naturally and (spoiler) by the next day, my weight was back to it’s previous slightly downward trajectory.
In the afternoon, my Girlfriend and I drove over to visit my Father. We had a nice visit and a nice lunch over there. Since he can’t get around I wanted to make sure he sees me walking and looking relatively healthy.
On the way home, we stopped at my apartment to pick up a couple of board games, had dinner, and played a couple of rounds of Ticket To Ride. My Girlfriend is now a fan of The Good Place which is fun to see a second time.
By the end of the day I was very very tired. It was a pretty eventful day. A story from my StepDad reminded me how lucky I’ve been in my recovery. Someone he knew had recent bypass surgery and spent the more normal 3 days in ICU, 10 days in the hospital recovering, and then at home in pain slowly getting better after that. Compared with me out and about being social with relatives by day 11. I feel very fortunate.