…we hope! Yesterday was a rough one. We knew the third day post op was usually the worst, and we’re hoping that’s true for Lindsey. Her congestion continued to feel worse as the swelling increased yesterday, and with the cocktail of pain meds, decongestants, and other medicine on a mostly empty stomach, she was not feeling well. In the afternoon, she was feeling nauseous on top of everything else, and needed to sit with her face over the humidifier for a while. Her pain reached the highest it has at an 8 out of 10. She was doing so well drinking water that they took her off of IV, but due to the pain and nausea she did not get much to eat yesterday.

The low point was in the evening when her difficulty breathing came to a head and she had a panic attack and many irregular heartbeats. She was very uncomfortable and scared for a while. She took some Klonapin, and one of her nurses was very helpful talking to her about her strong vitals and that her drug interactions were well understood and not going to cause any problems. After that, she was finally able to rest for a while and sleep, albeit fitfully.

The rest of the evening went much better, with her still not eating much but getting back to a more regular pattern of sleeping and drinking water. She slept for longer periods during the night, with one more session over the humidifier due to difficulty breathing around 4 am. After that, we both got to sleep more soundly than we have for the last 4 nights (yes 4, the night before surgery was not much better than any of the nights since!).

We got a visit from both Dr. Moore and Dr. Sullivan himself this morning. She got the chance to get a few of her questions answered now that she is more lucid. Both of them were very pleased with her progress and gave us some more instructions on how to prepare to go home. Yesterday, Lindsey would have asked to stay in the hospital all week. Today, she is so ready to get out of here. She really hates the IV (which she still gets antibiotics through periodically) and is wanting to get off some of the drugs that were making her feel woozy and nauseous.

Her oddest abnormal symptom is not being able to hear well out of her right ear. She says it sounds like she’s hearing through water. The doctors have said that this is nothing to worry about, as a lot of the operation occurred near her ear canal and swelling can cause that effect.

This morning she has had some of the best progress yet. After sleeping and not having pain medicine for a while, her pain was down to a 4, the lowest it has been. She asked to take her Ibuprofen in pieces rather than ground and mixed (almost entirely motivated by how bad her first dose of it tasted in the middle of the night last night). To do so, she started drinking water out of a cup instead of a syringe, and even opened her bite enough to slip each quarter of the pill in. She said that her airway is so big that swallowing pills is actually easier than before surgery! After that, she drank some chicken broth from a cup as well. Luckily, we had already put a towel on her lap to catch the inevitable drool 🤤.

I think all that progress was still a lot of effort for her, as she’s back to resting for a while with pain back up to a 6. Today we’re just continuing to manage pain without morphine, trying to “eat” more food, and get ready to head home to our VRBO. Thank you all for the continued support. You have helped encourage me and her parents as we support her, and it has been her best distraction from discomfort to read your messages. Please keep sending those her way, and pray for her as we head out today that she can be comfortable at home and continue healing.