Michael had a pain-free, incident-free night! He’s still dealing with the near-hourly sleep interruptions that comes with being in the hospital but his night was otherwise just fine. Obviously, sleep is as an important part of his recovery as everything else so I’ve been working with staff (rather…emphatically…to be honest) to minimize interruptions but some of it just goes with the territory. 

Michael’s vitals continue to be nice and strong, and the only thing a tiny bit off with his lab work is his sodium level. The doctors said at his morning visit that they are confident that’s merely a result of the water he’s been drinking combined with the IV liquid nutrition but “we’ll probably just give you a couple of salt tablets for that.” 

Also, Michael’s drain has finally slowed down its fluid production so things are still looking good for removal of that later today. Beyond that, his only instructions for today are to get some rest. 

The doctors said they’ll be back in a few hours to see how he’s doing and I’ll be back this evening to let everyone know how things are going. ❤️

Today was the most delightfully uneventful day we’ve had since we arrived. Since my last update, the doctor came in once to check on Michael, said he had no concerns and told him to stay the course with everything he’s been doing (so, snoozing, eating, and walking). There’s no news on the clot because dissolving it will take some time but there’s no evidence to indicate the medication isn’t already doing its job. 

Before I left tonight, Michael said a lot of the things that have been causing discomfort like turning certain ways or getting the hiccups “do not hurt anymore.” That is huge news for him and the first time he’s been able to say that. Overall, he feels like his innards have finally begun to cooperate and do what they need to do. 

The doctors have been saying for a couple of days that they’d like to take out the drain tomorrow and, as of now, that’s still on the table. He’ll get a big bag of liquid nutrition via IV overnight but he continues to drink Gatorade and Ensure with no issues so if that trend continues he will should be able to manage his own nutrition starting tomorrow. His vitals are wonderful so if his lab work looks good, he shouldn’t need an IV if any sort after tomorrow either. At that point there won’t be anything left for the hospital to monitor so… maybe we will be able to start talking about his discharge date again. 

They don’t want to keep Michael longer than necessary because every day he’s there he has to deal with sleep interruptions and the potential for random infections people can pick up during hospitalization. On the other hand, they want to make sure they resolve any outstanding issues so he doesn’t end up in a random St Pete hospital with a bunch of doctors who don’t understand the full scope of his recent medical history. We very much want to go home but we also don’t want to take any unnecessary risks so we and his medical te are taking it day by day. 

This day was really good. 

I’ll be back tomorrow morning with an update after the doctors stop in. Fingers crossed they start talking about booting him out for home. ❤️

Michael had a much better night last night than he has in a while. He’s up moving around this morning and has been walking every hour or so. In fact, we were tooling through the hallway a little bit ago and I stopped to talk to a nurse. When I turned around, Michael had sped around the corner and was gone. He left me in the dust!

The doctors just left and had all good things to say. For anyone worried about the clot, this may help ease your mind. Clots after surgery are definitely a concern for anyone but because so many of the veins around the tumor were already used to clots and other trouble before the surgery, this clot doesn’t have the same level of gravity that it might in someone else. They are watching and treating it, of course, but reinforced today that this isn’t a situation they — or Michael — can’t handle. 

His vitals are back to be nice and strong, and his bloodwork is looking good. The next couple of days will be all about monitoring labs and bloodwork, and trying to get rest. 

I’ll be back tonight with an evening update. ❤️

It took a lot of testing and assessments but they finally got to the bottom of what’s going on with Michael’s off-kilter lab work and ongoing (somewhat worsening) abdominal pain. It’s fixable with a medication and the doctors are not alarmed. I lead with that because saying he has a blood clot in one of the veins they worked on during surgery sounds very scary but it really is something they can address with a medication and they expect to be able to make it go away. 

The clot is causing some inflammation and pain in his intestines so they prefer Michael go back on a clear liquid diet for the moment, but food has been making him uncomfortable so he’s happy to make the adjustment. They said he’s free to get up and walk around, shower, and basically do whatever he wants while the medication does its thing. Although it could ultimately take weeks to resolve completely, the doctor said that as long as it’s working they’ll simply send him home with some pills when he gets discharged. 

They will also be inserting a specific type of IV tomorrow to give him regular nutrients and also make it easier to draw blood when they need it without sticking him 200 (more) times to closely monitor his bloodwork. This line is different from standard IVs in that he can be sent home with it if need be, so it’s not considered a setback but rather a different way to manage his care. 

I asked the doctor if any of this was cause for alarm and he said, “well, we aren’t excited the clot happened but it’s not a critical situation so he doesn’t need to go back to ICU or anything like that.” They have no reason to think it won’t respond to the medication but even if it doesn’t, they mentioned the next things they’d try and none of it requires a trip back to the OR. They have always been honest with us and we trust them implicitly, so we take a lot of comfort in that assessment. 

His next steps are to drink as many Ensures and electrolyte drinks as he wants, walk as much as he can, and catch up on the sleep he’s been missing. 

Michael has had a very difficult couple of days while they got to the bottom of this. Lots of tests, a million, trillion, bazillion needle sticks in finicky veins, constant sleep interruptions, an increase in pain, and the uncertainty associated with not knowing what’s been going on. He’s utterly and completely exhausted, both mentally and physically. Whatever source of comfort you call upon to send good vibes, please feel free to also send that energy Michael’s way. 

I’ll be back tomorrow with an update once the doctors come through on rounds. ❤️

Michael’s blood pressure is nice and strong, the rest of his vitals look great, and he’s much better hydrated now. Unfortunately, the problem was not a bladder infection so now they’re taking him for an abdominal CT since they’ve ruled out everything else from sepsis to a problem with the incision. We won’t have results until this afternoon so it’s going to be a long few hours.

It’s important to note that none of his doctors are alarmed and he doesn’t have a fever or anything else to indicate a raging infection has taken hold. It’s only because one of his lab values has been creeping up that they even thought to poke around. If they had urgent concerns they would start pre-emptive antibiotics while they investigated.

I’ll be back this evening to let you know what all we learned today. ❤️

Michael is doing fine and resting comfortably but he had a rough day. One of the tests he had today involved getting a new IV in one of the most sensitive parts of the arm which, because he was severely dehydrated, took multiple attempts and several hours. I guess I jinxed him during the morning update post when I said today’s tests wouldn’t cause him additional discomfort. 😬

He ended up having a barrage of tests that took well into the afternoon so he was pretty wiped out by the time it was all over. That, combined with the uncertainty of what was causing the blood pressure issues, took its toll on him so it was probably the most difficult day he’s had since leaving ICU. 

The good news is that they’ve ruled out things like sepsis and most other concerns that would be considered major setbacks and have narrowed it down to a bladder infection being the most likely suspect. After a day of speculative conversations that went in a lot of directions, I was really glad to hear that it might come down to that because it’s easy to fix. We’re still waiting for the results, which will come in overnight or first thing in the morning. 

This is probably a somewhat scattered and boring update but please be assured it’s not because anything is wrong that I’m not sharing. It’s just been a long day for both of us and I’ve got a few logistical things to take care of before I can turn in so I’m going to leave it here. I’ll be back in the morning with fresh eyes and more news. ❤️

Michael’s night was overall fine but he needed some pain meds for discomfort. His vitals are acting up a little, particularly his blood pressure which keeps dipping lower than it should. Despite that, he still feels fine so that’s a good sign. (And, to ease any concerns, Michael has always had unnervingly low blood pressure to begin with but extensive cardiac work ups in the last couple of years confirm that’s just how his body is. Of course, in medical situations, that doesn’t give him a lot of wiggle room if it dips. So a small drop from someone with BPs in the standard adult range wouldn’t be a big deal but he doesn’t have the same cushion.)

They’re running a few tests this morning to get to the bottom of it but they’re non-invasive so they aren’t causing him any additional discomfort. Rest assured, the staff has said everything they’re doing is precautionary to catch anything before it has a chance to become something.

I’ll be back this evening with more information, or sooner if there’s any news to share before then. ❤️

Michael is doing well and resting comfortably after an up and down day with his energy levels. As I mentioned this morning, the doctors overcorrected with a medication that ended up lowering his blood pressure more than was healthy for him. They gave him a little of this and a little of that to bring it back up and it stayed just fine the rest of the day, so that little health detour is behind him.

However, another equally solvable issue cropped up as a result of that medication. Michael ended up very dehydrated and is now back on a cocktail of IV fluids to get that resolved. This wasn’t carelessness by his doctors, but rather it came about because Michael has two things working against him: a new GI system and that frustrating drain. 

Michael can’t eat or drink too much all at once until his system is done re-learning how to behave, so he can’t guzzle water as needed like the rest of us to stay on top of his hydration needs. Meanwhile, the drain is pulling fluids as intended but that means Michael has to do a delicate dance between not drinking so much that his system get irritated but drinking enough to offset what the drain collects. That was going well until the one-time medication came along and upset the apple cart. But, like I said, this is solvable through IV hydration which is much easier for the doctors to fine tune as they go. 

So that’s where we are now. All his labs and vitals still look good, he has an appetite, and is up walking around regularly. Unfortunately, this has added some time to his stay so we may now be looking at not going home until closer to the end of the week. That’s definitely not what we wanted to hear but we’re focused on the fact(s) that he’s not in danger, his overall recovery timeline is right where it needs to be, and he’s not in any kind of pain (there’s mild discomfort as his system rebuilds, but not enough to even need painkillers). 

As far as setbacks go — and I hesitate to even call it that — this is very minor and in no way life-threatening. Let’s call it a nuisance.

Tomorrow will involve sitting around watching him rehydrate and sleep. It sounds boring but I’m grateful for it because no other alternative would do. 

I’ll be back with another update in the morning after the doctors come by. ❤️

Sorry for the late update but I was waiting for doctors and whatnot. Micheal is doing fine but there was a small hiccup overnight with his blood pressure, which dipped lower than it should have. It is back up to normal after he got some additional fluids and now he just needs to sleep off the effects.

The doctors believe this is a result of a one-time medication they gave him and not an indication of anything going wrong that’s related to his surgery. They were trying to clear up the drain issue he’s been having (which they seemed to be able to do by the time I left yesterday) but one of the doctors thinks they may have overcompensated a little bit. He was monitored continuously while it was low and all other vitals and cardiac stuff stayed looking just fine.

I’d venture a guess this has delayed his release by a day or so but only because they’ve been consistently overly cautious and I’m certainly a big fan of that. I’ll be back this evening with another update. ❤️

I am back this evening with a broken record update. We took another four laps around the unit this afternoon and Michael has spent another full day resting. I can tell he continues to improve because he looked over at me today and said, “you know what’s ironic?” I said, “no, what?”

“Rain on your wedding day.” 

Bad dad jokes are a bold move for someone who will be at my mercy once we leave here. 😂

Anyway, Michael has had another big improvement besides getting his funny bone back. The drain situation has improved dramatically since yesterday and the weekend doctor reinforced that they can send him home with it if need be. So we were glad to hear once again that drain removal isn’t a requirement for him to go home. 

There’s still not much news on his release date but Michael’s main docs have been gone all weekend so we weren’t expecting any. His surgeon is still out of town but the other doctors on the team also have decision-making authority so I expect we’ll get a clearer picture on that tomorrow. At this point he has no IVs, is eating well, is fully mobile with no assistance, and feels… well, not great of course, but is feeling well enough to satisfy the doctors. It’s been a challenging week for him but as recoveries go, his has been astonishingly rapid. 

I’ll be back tomorrow morning with a new update as soon as we see the doctor. ❤️