Tuesday 18th March 2003 I called the ICU first thing in the morning to see how Dazzle was. They told me that she had a bit of a restless night, with the pain and discomfort. Also the pain medication made her drowsy, but when she dropped off her respiration slowed so that her oxygen levels dropped and the nurses had to keep telling her to take deep breaths. By the time I got to the Hospital in the morning she had been moved back to her room. (thanks for the call Adigurl!) During the day, she spent most of the time in bed, apart from about two hours in the later part of the afternoon, when she managed to get out of bed (mostly under her own steam) and sit in the chair for a bit. I think that was mostly to try to get her moving a bit and to help her circulation. She tried her lung exercises again (I can never remember what its called… not spirograph… that’s a drawing toy!), to draw a comparison with how she had performed before the operation and anaesthetic. Although the first time she tried, it was quite low, there was an improvement by the time she tried it again later in the day. Mr P saw her again in the early evening and seemed to be pleased with her progress, he sees no reason why she isn’t on course to be discharged and on her way home by the weekend. He also assured her that today is definitely the worst day, and everything starts getting better soon… news that she was glad to hear. I left her this evening after she had been given some more pain medication, and hopefully she’ll manage to get some sleep tonight and feel a lot better tomorrow. I’ve felt fairly helpless today. Not being able to help much, apart from propping pillows and fetching and carrying a little. I am glad that I have been able to be here though, even though I probably haven’t contributed too much to the goings on. The timing of things worked out well with me getting home from Brazil a little later that originally scheduled and Dazzle getting the cancellation that she did. The way things are looking a work, I could be at home for some time during her convalescence which will be good too.
