Liver Surgery - Post Op - Day 1

Yesterday was a long day for both of us in different ways. 
My long day is nothing to complain about in comparison to hers.
I did not update the "Live Updates" post yesterday evening when she finally got to her room and settled in, because I was worn out, went home and went to sleep after being with her for a little while. 

So after talking to Dr. Clark about the surgery at 5:30pm yesterday, Christian stayed in Recovery for 2.5 hours. I went and got something to eat during that time. They finally got her room ready and transported her at 8pm. I met her in the room after they got her settled in. 

She was in quite a bit of pain, as the nerve blockers were wearing off from pre-op. She was very uncomfortable, and was still kind of out of it. he nurse put her on a 6-hr schedule receiving Percocet thru-out the night, and that helped manage the pain. We talked for a little while and I gave her the good news on how well the surgery went, and that the surgeon thinks he got it all out. Around 9pm, she was very tired and the pain medicine was beginning to work, so I went home to get some rest myself.

I got here this morning at around 9:15am. I was hoping she was able to get some sleep, and did not want to get here too early waking her up. Upon arrival, I was pleasantly surprised to find that she DID sleep pretty well. Some typical off/on sleep thru-out the night, but she said she felt like she did get some good rest. She said she is really sore, but the pain is being managed. 
I was so relived to find out she slept pretty decent and was not in bad pain all night.

She had to get up and go to the bathroom, so I helped her do that. This was the first time she had gotten up out of the bed since surgery. We moved slow, and she is sore, but it was good to see her moving around some. 

Her post-op care team had already stopped by the room before I got here, and they told her they wanted her to be getting up and moving around some today. They also wanted to switch her from oral pain meds to a PCA Pump to assist with her getting up and moving around. The PCA pump will work faster and mask any pain she has, so she can get up and walking without the pain. The walking around will help her recover much faster. They just did come and hook up the pump to one of her IV's. So now she has a little green button that she can press every 15min (if needed) to manage pain and help her get moving.

Dr. Paluri just stopped by for a few to check on her. He was very happy to talk about how well things went. He said he thinks that she will do great. Every day moving forward in this recovery will be better, so just take it day by day. 

We talked about what next steps will be, and the plan is fairly concrete at this time as outlined below:
1. Recover from this major surgery (3-6 weeks).
2. Finish off the last 3 cycles of Chemo (6 weeks).
3. Colon Surgery, more than likely Ileostomy Loop Reversal will happen at the same time.

All of it sounded great. Once she recovers from this major surgery, we will be thru the hardest part of this journey.

She was still tired, so she decided to get some more sleep. Perfect time for me to write this :-) 

Very grateful for everything going as well as can be expected, and hoping the recovery continues to be something she can handle and managed properly. 

Thanks for all of the thoughts, prayers, messages.