Carcinoid Tumor Surgery: Friday, April 21st

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This is part of a handful of blogs I've written chronicling my experience in going through surgery to remove a carcinoid tumor from my right mainstem bronchial tube.
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Each day I feel substantially better. I slept better on Thursday night even though I did have to wake a few times. They nurses seemed to give me a little more time in between vital checks and medications so I could get better sleep. Friday was a good day.

 I did some pulmonary therapy, which wasn't hard, but felt very good. Really just doing some stretches and doing a little work on one of those sitting bicycle machines. We talked extensively with Shari the rehab lady about what to expect and strive for in terms of rehab and exercise. I will walk a lot during my rehab. Very thankful that we have good walking paths in our neighborhood. I did a lot more walking on Friday than I did on Thursday and I started moving around faster as well. I became even more comfortable with my pain and knowing what I could and couldn't do. The first couple days I was kind of afraid not really of being in pain but tearing open my incision- something that the docs and nurses told me isn't really possible haha. So I started pushing myself a little more doing heavier breathing and stretching and working out the kinds. My pain level (1-10 scale with 10 being the worst) has consistently been at a 2 the entire time I've been in the hospital. There were a couple times it went up to a 3, but through the day on Friday it stayed at a 2 mostly.

Another great step forward on Friday was the removal of one of the chest tubes. I had two chest tubes in my right lung to drain fluid and blood from the surgery. They were able to take one out late on Friday afternoon. It didn't hurt to take it out, but they say overall my pain level will decrease as the chest tubes come out. The chest tubs are long (like 12 inches) and they measure how much fluid I'm draining. The other one will likely come out on Monday after my bronchoscopy.

I felt like I was able to interact a little better with Evan on Friday. It will be hard to not be able to pick him up for multiple weeks. A lot of my interaction with him is hold him, wrestling, rolling around, and physical play. Emily's more of the talker with him.

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