+Going With The Flow

Just a quick update on how things are going.

I’m a lot stronger now – I can get down and up the stairs to let people in on my own, for example.  My mom, who’s been staying with me since I got out of the hospital (like I said, she’s been an angel!) is going to be by a good deal less this week.  About the only thing I can’t do on my own is change the dressing on my back – it’s just plain out of my reach.

Speaking of the dressing, had a bit of scare with that the last few days.  On Thursday, I got about half the staples taken out.  That evening, I ran a fever of 101.  The next day, 101.6 – and the incision started oozing more.  We called in, and got told that if it didn’t get better in 24 hours, I’d have to come into the ER, have the right person paged, and probably I’d need an IV line put in for heavier-duty antibiotics.  In other words, I’d have to come in to the hospital daily for them to infuse stuff into my veins.  Fun, fun.  I was not looking forward to it.

Anyway, I had a bunch of people storm Heaven for me, and sure enough, the fever came down, so I didn’t go in on Saturday.  But that evening and Sunday morning, the incision started gushing like a fountain!  My mom would take the dressing off (soaked clear through, and through my T-shirt as well), and before she could get the new one on, stuff would be dribbling down my back.

That was sufficiently scary that we went in to the ER.  They took a chest X-ray to make sure that the fluid wasn’t coming from deep within – it wasn’t.  (It also showed that my lungs are much better since I left the hospital.)  That, plus the lower temperature, apparently reassured them that I wasn’t infected. (Or if I had been, that I’d fought it off.)  I’m told that sometimes fluid builds up just under the skin after surgery, and when the staples come out, it finds an outlet – not that big of a deal.  Mom does recall the skin around the incision being a bit puffy.

So they decided against the IV line.  They are culturing the stuff from my back to see if they need to give me (yet) another antibiotic, but it’ll be oral if they do.  Praise God!

Interestingly enough, just after my Thursday appointment and before my temperature went up, I finally got back to praying the Rosary, and I was offering it for the Poor Souls – they’ve been on my mind a lot lately.  But it seemed to me the Lord wanted me to also pray for my own recovery, which was something new.  So I did – and perhaps not a moment too soon, eh?

You’re so good to me, Beloved.

P.S.  I made it to Mass for the first time in WAY too long yesterday evening.  It brought me to tears – I’ve never been away so long.