Let there be light!

Saturday morning. Baby steps today. But we did get the ventilator tube out. After the machine left, I moved my chair from the dark corner to the window. Now I have enough light to read. That has made a surprising difference. Yay! Agnes is now on oxygen, but breathing through her mouth. She becomes very agitated, but appears to be in pain, so she is still in la-la land but only on morphine now. I’m pretty handy at reading all the monitors and know when to get the nurse and what to tell him to do. The sedative they were using has the side effect of amnesia, so she should not remember any of the past days, which can only be a good thing. Her surgeon is a wonderful doctor, at least as far as bedside manner. He is very good at explaining the past, expressing optimism, letting me know what to expect, and outlining steps if developments are not as expected. Bless him, he has promised me daily phone updates when I have to leave on the big silver bird again. Her nurses have been wonderful, also. I have always been dubious that they used this hospital in preference to going to St. Louis, but I like her doctors, and her care appears appropriate. You can’t judge the hospital by the cafeteria, I’m just sayin’. So finally, the proper combination of mild sedative, lidocaine patches, morphine and diuretics seem to be operative, and she is sleeping without distress. Let's hope tomorrow brings more progress.