Fingers Crossed

It's over! The dang catheter is out as of yesterday morning. We did it off the books, so to speak, because the system was being anything but helpful.

I will refrain from a blow-by-blow report, but I am here to tell that when the doctor says that someone will make a house call on such and such a day, that it simply will not happen. It didn't happen on the first removal, and didn't happen on the second one. 

To repeat: we took matters in our own hands and had it removed, privately, yesterday. My officially scheduled appointment is for tomorrow. But "No no," it could not take place at home. I would have to drive into the city, for you see, if one is not bed-ridden and if one lives within 30 minutes of an official home care provider (I use the word, home, loosely), one must go there for they will not come to you. It doesn't matter if you are a senior wearing a catheter, you will get there dammitall.  (As for the 30 minute drive time, well, they put it into Google and out pops the answer. Apparently, with clear roads and a good tail wind, I could have made it in about 23 minutes if I had taken the highway. Baloney, says I, for I don't take the highway.)

Anyway, I was home, catheter-free, by noon yesterday. As I scurried into the house to relieve ye olde bladder after the half-hour drive, Sue was figuring out how to get the yellow recycling box down from the snowbank.

Some juvenile delinquent had tossed it up there whilst we were out attending to my woes. We have an extendable pole thingy to wash the upstairs windows, so Sue used that to pull the box down.

We decompressed here for awhile and then headed out for breakfast at lunchtime. Some of you may know that as brunch, but I, personally, had breakfast at lunchtime. lol

The Chef's Breakfast Bowl was yummy but huge.  Being smarter than I look, I didn't finish it, despite its yummyness.

Before the food came we enjoyed coffee. If I look chuffed to be out amongst the living, it is because I darn well was.

Yes, it sure did feel good to be out and acting more or less human after one heckuva week. I hadn't been in pain, and we eventually managed to cope with the catheter, but the difficulty of getting the attention and the help that we needed made it a very anxious and unsettling week.

Now, I have made it through the night without my bladder shutting down like it did after the removal of the first catheter, and I am encouraged to hope that the catheter incident is truly over. Fingers crossed.

Jonathan's Hockey Portraits

While I remain in catheter Neverneverland, I thought I would post Jonathan's formal hockey portraits, in which he displays a bit of tude. I like all three but perhaps the changing room one with the sweater and equipment best. Good job by the photographer.

Jonathan's Birthday

Let us step away from my post-surgery woes to commemorate Jonathan's birthday party.

Under the circumstances I didn't know if I was going to get around to cobbling together a birthday card, but in the end, I managed. The outside of the card is top left, and the inside is on the right. His one birthday gift, from all of us, is on the bottom.

With only one gift to open, Mom extended the event with a series of clues. He opened that huge box (above) to find a only tiny slip of paper (top left, below). That sent him on a chase of clues until another wrapped box eventually revealed an X-box (top right). Of course, he spent the rest of the night engrossed (bottom).

A few other snapshots.

Sue took these ↓ photos while we were waiting to serve ourselves dinner. I bent down to JJ's height because I speculate that we will be much closer in height at the end of this year. At least, my big growth spurt occurred in my fifteenth year, after my 14th birthday. We shall see.

Sue is the main family photographer. When I saw her taking a picture of Danica and her boyfriend, I decided to take advantage.

Just for the record, Sha and Sue were also present.

It was good to get out, but after visiting ER in the middle of the previous night, I was pretty well at my wits' end by the time Sue was helping me to get ready for bed by changing over to the big, night catheter. Thankfully, I had a very much needed, long-for-me sleep.

The Catheter Saga Continues

6:30 AM Saturday: we got back from the hospital at 5 o’clock.

I am currently the proud possessor of a brand new catheter.

The initial one was removed yesterday afternoon. There is a long fiasco surrounding that, which I had thought that  I would be writing about today. I probably will still describe the ordeal in due course, for it was what my daughter categorized as a shitshow. But for now it is about the night.

Once the first catheter had been removed, I was peeing like crazy — long and frequently. It was quite wonderful. It’s the little things, eh?

But then I couldn’t urinate at 11:30 last night after two hours of sleep. I slept some more and tried again at 1:30 with the same result, or lack of result, I should say. When 3:30 also yielded nothing, I was becoming rather concerned. I walked around the house, hoping to move things along — to no avail.

I woke Sue up at 4:00 and told her to get ready to go to Emerg.

So that is what we did on the freaking coldest night of the year at -32C/-26F, or even colder depending on the source.

Fortunately, the hospital is just a couple of blocks away. Fortunately, ER was devoid of other needy people, so there were no germs being shared, and I was also attended to pretty quickly. Most fortunately of all, the new catheter solved the problem.

Unfortunately, I will be catheterized through the weekend, which is what I had earnestly hoped to avoid. Unfortunately, I will have to deal with the situation again on Monday morning when I shall have to call my urologist to ascertain the next step.

For now, I am back in my chair with a new catheter attached and already emptied once, and this is after much was drained at the hospital.

But for now, I am fine. I’ve had coffee and toast and just have to fill in the next 9 hours or so before going to Jonathan’s birthday supper.

The boy came into this world 14 years ago, and it was about at this hour that we had also just got back home. Sue had been to the hospital with Shauna, and I had been at their place to tend to young Danica should she have required assistance.

It wasn’t cold like this though, I can tell ya. And I wasn’t connected to tubes, either. It was a better time.

We Figured It Out

We are on Day 3 of  AC's surgery. I didn't think that there would be more to report, but some of you have been concerned about the catheter issue, so here we are.

Back on Wednesday, it seemed that they were explaining the catheter and the two bags almost as soon as I awoke from surgery. I don't process techy things very well at the best of times, and being a little spaced out after anesthetic was, most certainly, not the best of times, to say the very least. They did try to tell me how to change bags, but they didn't explain anything to Sue who is good at these sorts of things. They handed her the bag of stuff, and off we went.

By the way, whatever I say about what could have been done better, the nurses were phenomenal in caring for me. Before surgery, I had to go to the bathroom. The nearest facility was in use, so one gal actually rolled my gurney to the farther bathroom and then helped me get in there. To repeat: they were wonderful.

But, we had two 75-year-old seniors going home right after surgery without a lot of support. In fact, the only additional help would come two days later (which is today), when a home care worker would come by to remove the catheter.

My leg bag was strapped on, and when it came time to figure out what to do for the night, we couldn't quite come to grips with how to change over to the night bag. The tubing wasn't terribly long, and we don't have a bed rail on which to attach it, so we couldn't quite compute the logistics

Therefore, I opted to spend the night in my chair with the leg bag. I was very conscious of keeping it lower than me as best as possible, but it was marginal. I set my watch alarm to go off every two hours to check drainage and the bag. I could lie on my back, which is not how I sleep, or roll a bit to one side. I didn't sleep much.

Fortunately, we have Shauna, and Shauna has connections through her job. The next day, she brought us a bigger bag with a longer tube. She also had a nurse friend drop by to explain it all to Sue. It was also fortunate, that we happened to have a walker in the house, on which we could hang the bag. That device is here for use after a possible foot-fusion surgery. But that is another story.

Before bedtime, Sue got me organized before she crashed for the night after two difficult days and nights for her as well. I was still in the chair, but I could make my way to the guest bed when I felt ready to retire for the night.

In bed, I was able to change positions as needed, and I had one of my best sleeps in a long time.

This morning, she was there to help me the instant that I awoke. She reversed bags again as I looked on in absolute befuddlement. Before long, I was at the computer with coffee and ready to face anther day.

As I wrote, above, a home care worker should visit today to remove the dadgum contraption, but there is another story here about that situation that I shan't go into today. If and when I am free of the device, I shall shower and maybe feel human once again.

Update and Sue's Photos

I caught Sue a bit unaware on the day before surgery when I made it clear that if things were to go belly up, so to speak, that I was not to be put on long term life support. By all means, try to resuscitate me if applicable, but don’t go overboard. We know this about each other, really, but I thought it should be confirmed. But all went well and here I am still alive and grousing grinning.

Not unexpectedly, I didn’t get much sleep last night as I was mindful of the placement of the catheter and bag. I wanted to make sure that I was draining well but also not overflowing.  We opted to use the smaller leg bag and not the bigger night bag because, other than the size, it seemed more convenient. I set the alarm to wake up every two hours, but of course I didn't need it. The bag was pretty full just one time, and it resisted being emptied. I got poor Sue up, and she managed to squeeze the contents out. The passage had been blocked by several little blood clots. The good news is that the flow became clearer after the clots passed. Then, after my last emptying at five this morning, I forgot to tighten the nozzle, and I had some leakage. I know what I did wrong, and it won’t happen again.

After those updates, what I really want to post were some fabulous winter photos that Sue got yesterday around the town after coffee at McDonalds. As always, she took a plethora of shots, but I will show a modicum of restraint.  

Going past the Rideau Canal in Smiths Falls

A house and bridge that Sue snapped from the moving car, and also the water tower in the second photo.

From a stop in a parking lot, they captured a great sky as well as the rest of the scene.

At one point they made friends with a dog named Freddy.

It was a pleasant outing for the ladies, and they were back at the hospital in plenty of time to await the call to come up and collect the patient from surgery.

AC Gets His Surgery

A vibration on my wrist awoke me at 5. I sat on the bed and turned it off. I then grabbed my phone and fumbled my way through the phone settings to turn off the phone alarm (set for 5:05) and the Alexa alarm (set for 5:10). They were just-in-case alarms, like I used to set when I would be called upon to drive Danica to work on those early Sunday mornings.

The house went down to 15C/59F overnight, and knowing that I needed a shower before surgery. I then accessed the thermostat app to set it to 20C/68F; this is our normal daytime temperature, but it often runs a little bit warmer. Then, it was time to go manual and also turn of the little heater in the bathroom. By 5:25 I was in there shaving and showering. Also by that time, I had availed myself of about a cup of apple juice and a cup of water: clear fluids which was all that I was allowed in take, and I had in ingest before 5:45 at that.

We weren't to hit the road until 7, but I needed to get in and out of the bathroom with my major doings before Sue would require it for her minor doings such as hair touchup and a bit of makeup. Sha was here by 7, and we were on our way to the Smiths Falls Hospital for 7:45 check-in.

Very soon, I found myself in another bathroom exchanging my daytime garments for a cap, gown and booties. I confessed to the attendant nurse that I am challenged and requested that she tie the dadgum thing up for me, and I was soon on the gurney. 

I have heard that smiles reach the eyes, but you are about to witness that they don't — at least not in my case under those circumstances. I did try though. 

Then came IV time. Nurse had great trouble. Apparently, I have good veins, but they weren't drawing well because of my lack of hydration. The first two efforts, pictured below, hurt like the dickens though. The next effort on the other hand went well.

I had already answered a plethora of questions once, before I even got to the gurney, and then I had to answer them (and more) again. But we weren't done, for I then had to answer similar questions and others from the anesthesiologist. I asked for a general, having had a bad experience with a spinal, with essentially the same procedure 16 years ago.

The procedure, by the way was a TURP (Transurethral resection of the prostate). There was also a spot on the bladder to be biopsied.

By 9 o'clock I had shuffled my way onto the operating table. Experience from my hernia surgery in 2019 told me that they would keep nattering at me after they asked my to remove my hearing aids. I avowed that the appliances were going to remain in until all of the chitchat was done. When I awoke at 9:40 someone had already put them back in my ears — not totally correctly, but basically. Now, that is good service, above and beyond.

I was still a trifle spacey when the conversation and instructions started up. Things such as meds and catheters and bags were discussed. Eventually, I got it, but I needed help when changing back into civvies. As I write this [drivel] on Wednesday evening (the same day as the surgery), it is still strapped to my leg and will remain there until a homecare worker comes to remove it on Friday. I have a larger bag for nighttime, but since I am used to getting up a lot anyway, I think that I will just keep the smaller leg bag attached and drain it as needed.

At this very moment (6:30) Alexa is reminding me to take my Dilaudid (Hydromorphone) pill. It is for pain, but I am not in pain. However, I will take it anyway for a day. Shauna told me expect some pleasant effects from the Dilaudid, but of course I haven't had that little pleasure. Sigh. Meds often don't affect me like they do other people. Too bad really (lol). I have also been prescribed Acetomenophen, and I will take that like a good [old] boy too.

So that is where I am at the moment: home, and I have been since noon. The catheter is in; I am not in pain, and I can get around semi normally. 

Meanwhile, while I was being attended to by the fine medical system this morning, Sue and Sha headed out for coffee. So, while I was sending the above pictures of pitiful me, they were able to send me a much more pleasant one in return. They took fab outdoor pics too, but I shall save them for tomorrow.

Thanks for bearing with me, assuming that you have — a very big assumption, for sure. But since I mentioned the surgery in passing a few days ago, I thought that I would lay it all on yiz.