Got the kids out of school for a few hours to come see Chris. Did a tag-team swap with Margo so she's taking the kids to lunch then back to school and now I'm at the hospital. Chris sat up in a chair for a while, visited with Mom and the kids and me, and is now reclining in the chair and resting up for the big walk.
Yep, they cut him open 14 hours ago and now he's supposed to walk. The doctor told us about this. "For reasons that we look back on now and say 'What the hell were we thinking?', we used to keep people flat on their backs for a week after this kind of surgery. We know now that getting you up and moving is the best way to get your body to heal [and avoid blood clots in the legs - ed.], so we're going to have you up and around as fast as we can after we do this."
They listened to his bowels this morning, and heard nothing. See, during the surgery, they had to lift his bowels out and set them aside so they could get at his kidneys. This, combined with the anesthesia and pain meds, tends to make the bowels say "I QUIT". When your bowels get pissed like that, you're not allowed to have any food or water by mouth, because it will just sit there (or get barfed back up). So, they want you to get up, walk around, and try to convince your bowels that all is well again and they can get back to work.
As tired and sore as he is right now, Chris says he's eager to get walking so he can have a drink of water. He's been NPO (nil by mouth) for 16 hours now. He's only allowed to swab his mouth with a wet sponge. That...sucks.
His Mom read him this morning's blog entries and the comments. He loved 'em.
Nice!
We'll likely have a fantastic testing environment, and the beginnings of the FB / DRD integration started somewhere around when you're ready for digital distraction. Lots of good data to be harvested there... we need you back to analyze it.
On the getting up and moving front... http://www.treadmill-desk.com/ anyone?
Posted by: Christian Nally | January 10, 2008 at 12:18 PM
"He's only allowed to swab his mouth with a wet sponge"
oh dear
can it be wet with, say, steak?
j.
Posted by: jon | January 10, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Set his bowels aside whilst they cut away at the kidneys!!!!!???? OH MY GOSH!!! Dude - he must be all sore and generally jumbled up! Get walking Chris and cure that cotton mouth ;) Pretty amazing what you've been through oh-master-sage-of-photography!
PS - Do you seriously play xbox while on the elliptical trainer? HOW??
Posted by: Laurel | January 10, 2008 at 08:15 PM
Another question - so now that he only has one kidney, should that be able to do the work of both? One always hears that but is that indeed true that from a kidney function standpoint, he shouldn't miss that kidney?
Posted by: Laurel Geis | January 10, 2008 at 08:17 PM