Stephanie's Acoustic Neuroma Surgery

Friday, January 18, 2013

Thursday Night Friday AM

Steph did really well last night. She had some visitors and talked with them for a little bit. After she ate some dinner she was getting really tired so we took a short walk and she fell asleep. She was supposed to get pain meds at 2 am and the nurse didn't want to wake her up so she waited until 3:15. Steph's headache has started to come back. We just got her some more meds at 7:20 and she said it was helping a little. Enough to fall asleep.
She has been taking the pain meds every 4 hours. Some friends who had this same surgery suggested taking a different pain med in between. I asked the nurse about it and she said that should be fine and she will double check with the doctor. Hopefully that will make it so Steph doesn't jump back up to an 8. They ask her to rate her pain from 1 to 10. She is usually around 2-4. Yesterday she has said 9-10. This morning she said 8. I don't think she could sleep at 8 so things must be working, even if just a little.
When I was talking to the nurse I asked her if this was normal pain for this kind of surgery. She said with the few other patients she had they did have pain and dizzyness with nausea. I told her I was nervous to take Steph home if she was going to be feeling like an 8. Even towards the end of her 4 hours in between meds she starts to have more headache/pain. Hopefully the new pain med helps keep the pain down.
Steph tried to eat breakfast this morning but the omelet was a little to hard to chew. It was hurting her to chew it. The potato bits were not edible and she fell asleep before the milk could soften her cheerios. I don't dare wake her just to eat cheerios. While I was typing this she woke up and I asked her if she wanted the cheerios. She said "I want to go to sleep." I guess cheerios are to boring without sugar or honey for her to wake up for. She did eat a half of the cup of applesauce with her pain med so she should be ok.
Hopefully we don't need morphine today so we can come home. The nurse said they won't send her home if she has morphine in her system.
Dr Shelton came in just now. He asked her about her pain and she said 4-5. She still didn't want to eat the cheerios though. It looks like we will probably be coming home today. 
I have been so worried about the pain Steph is going through that I forgot to mention that her face has had some slight paralysis on the right side. you can't really tell when talking to her but the nurses and doctors do test on her each day and night. She has to smile showing teeth, raise her eyebrows, close her eyes tightly, and scrunch her nose. I haven't told her this but the doctors quickly mention "slight paralysis" and tell her it's normal and should go back to normal. Her right eye brow doesn't raise as high. Her smile is just a little off on the right. The biggest thing I noticed is her right eye blinks slower than her left. Dr Mann told her that she may need eye drops and that we can just get over the counter ones when we get home if her lack of blinking gets worse. Don't mention it to her if you see her though. Even if it is to tell her that I am crazy and that you can't see a difference like I mentioned on the blog. She was really nervous about have a lazy face.

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