Recovery from Surgery Hard Due to Respiratory Infection

Well, we got home Thursday, December 1, 2016, feeling great and everything was looking good!  The complications began the next day, Friday, December 2, 2016, when I suddenly began to get the cough that Karrie had been getting for a few days prior to surgery.  I usually don't get the things she does, and we both got our flu shots early in September, so I wasn't expecting anything.

As I write this blog entry... feeling a bit stronger and getting a break from coughing.

That evening I got the chills and within 15 minutes, my temperature began to rise.  Mind you, I have run a point low at 97.4 since the Shy Drager symptoms began years ago.  When I got up to 102.2, I knew it was as severe as 103.3 would be for the average person.  The chills increased, the cough went deep into my lungs and I began to have fluid getting stuck in my airways.  At times that night we weighed going to emergency to make sure I didn't lose my breathing freedom from all of the gunk building up.  It was scary!

It was a long tough road.  I was in bed for two and a half days and was awake 5-6 hours of that time.  Remember, Karrie wasn't much better.  She had a lower but steady temperature, having had her higher temperatures earlier in the week.

Meanwhile, the wound was a good 5-inch gash and healing very well.  I do not have much pain to speak of now, and the cough and aches in my body are still present, but my temperature is back in the low 97's, which is my normal reading since Shy Drager.

Looking back, December 1, 2016 wasn't a great day to get the generator replaced because the weather was the coldest in the entire fall and it was in the 60's in the house without heating it.  This weather condition made it the worst time to have a cold, let alone surgery to replace my generator.  Being one who chokes on foods and fluids several times a day, I feared the worst-- a bad case of pneumonia-- as I had earlier this year in June.  The antibiotics that my neurosurgeon prescribed were effective and I believed helped me fight off the worst.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

I hadn't been out of the house since the surgery and just returned from a car ride and drive through lunch at Bakers.  Karrie and I ate it in the car and I felt a bit more normal for having been out in the world.

The respiratory condition is still working itself out with coughing and aches, but I can tell we are out of the woods!  I can see myself recovering.

The new generator has had an immediate effect.  My last one was worn out.  I hadn't realized it, but looking back I was: a) falling hard a few times in the past 4-6 weeks, b) choking on foods and liquids daily (dysphagia), c) biting my tongue, cheek and lips at each and every meal!, and, d) just a lot more need for my walker and wheelchair to get around because of the poor coordination of my limbs.  This change was needed.

I am swallowing much, much better and chomping on my face and tongue so, so much less!  I had sores all over my mouth and sometimes I would get so bewildered after yet another uncoordinated bite out of my lower lip that I could either cry or laugh forever! Such an improvement.  I am getting around better and using my walker in the home at night only, but not during the daytime hours.

The only negative may be that my speech has slowed this last week (dysarthria) and I am beginning to wonder if it is a side effect or just the cognitive slowing that I am experiencing.  It sounds to Karrie (and myself) like slow and drawn out words and phrases.  It feels to me like it is getting the words from the thought to my speech apparatus, but I will have to ask the movement disorder specialist/neurologist about it when we return to see her on Monday.

Thanks for all the support and your prayers!  -- Dan