Jim’s Hernia Surgery

Jim had a 10:00 a.m. appointment for his hernia surgery and he only had to wait a few minutes before they brought him in to be prepped.

The anesthetist and doctor came in and explained things and come 11:05 a.m. they wheeled Jim away.  That is a terrible moment…when they wheel a loved one away….fear….will he come back???  I know it is unrealistic to think that way, but the slight fear is there nonetheless.

About a half-hour later the surgical nurse came out and said they tried to do a laparoscopic procedure, but Jim’s previous appendectomy scar and the large size of the hernia prevented that.  So the had to make the normal cut and Jim has both incisions to heal from.

Doctor came out after the procedure and said everything went as normal, but that Jim awoke in a great deal of pain so he was immediately given a Percocet. By the time he was removed from the recovery room and back in the prep room it was 2:00 p.m.  

Jim’s blood pressure (BP) wasn’t recovering as fast as the nurse had liked.  When he first came in his BP was 121/73 and after the operation it was 75/45.  The doctors came in and checked him over and since Jim didn’t have any symptoms of low BP (like dizziness and nausea) they gave him more liquids via IV and he could go home.  The doctors figured Jim was just dehydrated and he was instructed to drink mega amounts of liquids, but no beer LOL. So when his BP got to 90/54 they released him, which they did at 3:30 p.m.

After being confined in their pet taxis for six hours, Poncho and Chorizo (also known as Beanie and Wienie) were very ready to go outside and to see us again.

Since Jim doesn’t drink a lot of liquids on any day, getting him to drink “mega amounts” was going to be a challenge.  Jim is a big milk and coffee drinker and sometimes iced tea, but never, never water, which is what he needed.  So I went to Safeway and bought four 64 oz. bottles of various cranberry drinks…cran-grape and cran-raspberry.  Now to get him to drink it all………..

Jim has a follow-up appointment with the doctor in a week and from there we can figure out better how long we will have to wait till we travel again. 

As long as Jim is taking the Percocet he can’t drink alcohol and can’t drive.  Also he can’t pick up anything over 5 pounds or even pull the lever to dump our holding tanks for F-O-U-R  weeks.  Ah ha, that means he can’t even pick up his beloved gallon of milk….it weighs over seven pounds!!!  Pretty funny when a grown man has to say, “will you get me a glass of milk, please” because he’s not allowed to lift the jug!

I’ve never had to “take care” of Jim from an illness….he has had to “take care” of me through a few operations.  Now the tables are turned and he isn’t liking it one bit.  But he doesn’t have much choice in the matter.  He gets to be “babied”.

Jim’s OK with climbing up the stairs into the fifth-wheel and up to the restroom (although Jim said it’s a toss-up who walks slower him or Tim Conway’s and his shuffle). I’m now in charge of taking out the dogs…which I found out occurs even at  3-4 a.m.!!!  Ugh!!! Hard to go back to sleep after being out in the cold night air at 3 o’clock in the damn morning!!!!!

So it looks like we’ll be sitting tight for about a month, but it all depends on how Jim heals and the time that will take.  We’ll take it one day at a time and see how things go. 

We both want to thank all of you for your prayers, phone calls, comments on my Facebook page and text messages.  Jim was completely overwhelmed when he read everything…."I didn’t know so people cared”.  So “thank you” for caring about my man!  You are so appreciated.

Remember, you are loved.
Read the story behind the saying HERE