Carcinoid Tumor Surgery: Saturday & Sunday, April 23-24

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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Saturday was one of two days that felt a little tedious. We kind of knew that our doctor and his residents weren't really working over the weekend and thus my bronchoscopy was scheduled for Monday. If I had the surgery done on a Monday I may very well have had the bronchoscopy on a Thursday or Friday and gotten the chance to go home quicker. However, my second chest tube had to stay in until the bronchoscopy and thus I had to deal with that on Saturday as well as Sunday. By midday on Saturday I had adjusted to being off the epidural meds and on oral pain medication (Oxycodone and Tylenol). I was able to enjoy hot showers and could mostly care for myself in the restroom, shaving, etc.

Saturday Emily's sister Susan came to visit from the Cities and spent the day with us. We spent a lot of time outside as it was so nice out. I did more rehab on Saturday, which wasn't very challenging, and we started to realize how well I was really doing. Barring any setbacks or unforeseen circumstances, I may not even have to be on pain narcotics once I go home. At this point most of my pain is centered on the second chest tube. It's about 12 inches long and goes into my right lung to drain liquid. Once that's out my pain should again take a substantial step down and hopefully even be bearable enough that I'll be fine on over-the-counter meds.

We enjoyed some BBQ pork Saturday night from John Hardy's BBQ in Rochester. Afterwards Susan and Bonnie headed home with Evan and Al went down to the hunting shack at one of his friend's place about and hour further south to hunt Sunday morning. Evan slept great once he got home Saturday night and he sure needed it because he didn't nap super well in Rochester and when he was awake he was of course entertaining everyone he saw lol.

Emily continued beating me in Quarto throughout the weekend, a game we bought during our first trip to Rochester in March to consult with the surgeon. Sunday she decided she'd continue putting me in my place as loser of all games and she bought Ticket to Ride and proceeded to crush me in it twice on Sunday.

I enjoyed watching some more NBA playoff basketball on the hospital's cable TV, an amenity we don't enjoy at home, haha. Basically we just hung out the rest of the weekend and tried finding a good balance to manage my pain, something that isn't even that effective until I get the second chest tube out. Thus- it was a little tedious. We watched Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them and got Five Guys Buger's and Fries Sunday night. I worked on these blogs, we did 10+ laps of walking in the hospital courtyard and I played the grand piano in the lobby and sang- something that was good for my lungs and a few bystanders enjoyed.

I continued working on coughing throughout the day and practicing my breathing exercises. While my lungs seem strong and all signs point to a successful surgery and good recovery so far, I have some lingering fluid I can feel in my breathing that I think are partly a result from my cold last week and partly due to the fact that it hurts to really get good coughs in.