Ertl Amputation Day 4

Thursday, June 12 2008 -

It was a bad day; a really bad day. I wasn't there for her. That sucks.

Day three is here.

I spoke with Carol at around 7am as I was leaving Bristol CT for work. She was in good spirits and everything seemed fine. She did say her fever had come back overnight and she was running 102. That's high, but much better than the previous nights 104. Everything went down hill from there, though I didn't know it until much later in the day.

Apparently the pain killers from the epidural had finally run through her and she quickly started experiencing severe pain. Her mother and her ex were there for her today, so she had someone she cares about around, but it was hard hearing how much she was hurting and not being able to be there for her.

I spoke with her briefly around 11:30am. She answered the phone, but couldn't hold a conversation. I could feel how much she was hurting just from her voice. Around 2pm they finally got it under control. Once that happened she was able to get up and actually walk down the hall on crutches. They also removed the catheter and she was able to go to the bathroom on her own.

She got a room-mate as well. Those rooms are tiny it is almost impossible to put a chair between the two beds. That sucks for her because there is zero quiet. It also means that it is hard for guests to be in the room if a nurse has to come in. Hopefully another room will open up tomorrow and one or the other of them can be moved.

She mentioned that Dr. Ertl said he didn't like how the wound looked, though I couldn't get confirmation that he actually said that. It might be that he said he did like it. She mentioned it during our 11:30am talk and it was hard to understand her. I didn't get a chance to ask her again tonight.

She called before the kids and I got home. She sounded very tired, but no longer in pain. She said she was going to sleep and would speak to me tomorrow.

I swear sitting in the hospital at her bedside for 3 days doing essentially nothing was easy; the time just seemed to fly by. Sitting at work today it seemed like each hour was more like three.