In Recovery

Pictures after the post. Olivia has been in recovery for about seven hours now. Amy and I saw her right after the surgery, and we had to admit that she looked better than immediately after the last surgery she had. Less swelling, less tubes and attachments, less medicines, and yet she seemed better than last time. A few things:

7:00pm: Took out the ventilation tube. When we asked her the first few times if she wanted it out, she said no. Obviously not with it. As soon as it was out, she asked for juice. Poor girl . . . that won't happen for another five hours. In the meantime I am wetting her lips with a washcloth and trying to rinse out her mouth when she will let me.

8:45pm: First dose of pain meds (morphine) since the operation. She had enough sedation during the procedure to last for quite a few hours after, so this is normal.

9:00pm: Dang, that morphine works quickly! Asleep.

She's got her puppy next to her head; she has two vacuum drains coming out of either side of her belly; the other two thin, brown lines are just-in-case direct lines to shock her heart in the case of emergency; she has multiple IVs in each hand and a direct line in the left side of her neck (a PICC line); she has a urinary catheter in; she has no staples, but some dissolvable sutures in her chest which are covered by a large bandage; she has peeling pink nail polish on her nails. And she's asleep. Click the pictures for mural-sized versions.