When they said it was a tough surgery for Karen they meant it. They wanted her in the ICU overnight to monitor her. Luckily the night was uneventful, and so far they haven't had to give her more blood. She's still quite groggy and falling in and out of consciousness when people are talking with her. She didn't sleep very well and says she's afraid to go asleep for too long because she doesn't want to wake up to a high level of pain because she wasn't activating the PCA pump.
The surgical team has put an order in to move her to a regular room, and they are allowing her to eat a regular diet again. They said they're concerned with how much swelling her she's having in her body as a whole, and are putting her on a diuretic to get some of that fluid out of her body. The palliative team has also been around and said they want to address the issue Karen's having with sleep and the use of the PCA pump. They said they might be able to get the hydromorphone on a drip, but if that isn't an option they'll come up with something else. We also saw a social worker today. Sometimes I feel social workers are more interested in being social, than in helping, but I didn't get that impression this time. I don't think there's anything she can help us with, but she kept steering the conversation towards our needs and didn't overstay her welcome as I've often felt social workers have done.
