October 8

I was up to see Judy twice today. She is still in the ICU. When the girls and I visited Judy in the morning, she was quite uncomfortable. The morphine she was given to deal with pain was causing her to be nauseous. Morphine always makes Judy upchuck. As you can imagine, Judy was quite drowsy and incoherent so it was like visiting your crazy old aunty. During the day she was taken off the medication she was receiving to deal with low blood pressure. The doctors feel she is moving in the right direction on that one. The morphine has been replaced with Dilaudid(not sure of the spelling or pronunciation). Dilaudid is 5 times more potent than morphine. So far, the drug is not making her nauseous. When I visited Judy this evening, she was still quite sedated. She can utter 2 or 3 words before she nods off. She is very uncomfortable because she has to spend the majority of the time on her right side. She is allowed on her back for periods of less than 10 minutes or less. Four times a day she is allowed to lay on her left side for 15 minutes. I watched the nurse re position Judy and surprisingly, Judy is able to shift herself with a minimum of assistance. I thought she would have been more fragile and may blow a stitch by moving position, but such is not the case. She only has one hose to drain fluid from her abdomen. She actually has fewer tubes and cords and monitors and ports and IVs than she has had in previous operations. Short story: Judy is going in the right direction. She may be moved up to an observation unit soon. We will see what tomorrow will bring.