Highlights from the hospital stay:

• Zofran is a godsend for opioid-induced nausea, but it doesn’t do bubkes for blood-induced nausea. And I swallowed a lot during surgery, apparently, so I spent a fair amount of Monday vomiting. Whee.
• Doing my prehab routine and getting into as good a shape as possible for the surgery paid benefits in that I was able to do three rounds of the floor on Tuesday, got cleared by speech and physical therapy, and was untethered from the DVT calf sleeves so that I could get up and wheel my IV stand into the bathroom unassisted. The only reason I had to stay for one more night is that my surgeon wanted me to get a few more rounds of IV antibiotics.
• There is a phlebotomist out there who is damn lucky I didn’t punch him in the nads when he startled me awake at 3 AM this morning and proceeded to use a regular blood draw needle on the back of my hand while saying, “Huh—I should use a baby needle for this. Oh, well.”
• My GOD, hospitals are noisy places at night. But my nurses and CNAs were lovely people so many thanks go out to them.
• A diet of clear liquids gets really, really dull after awhile. But I can start eating soft foods tomorrow so I’m looking forward to pudding, overcooked pasta, and soup instead of broth.
• Pain-wise, it’s being handled nicely with Tylenol (granted, I still have a lot of opioids from the surgery in my system). Right now the most annoying thing is the sensation of having the world’s biggest canker sore under the left side of my tongue from the stitches poking said tongue.
• I still have a drain in my neck from the lymph node removal, as well as some swelling that is giving me an impressive double chin, and I’m getting rather good at decanting the vacuum bulb and recording the output. The fluid is going from red to straw, which is expected and means that things are healing well.
• I’m tired, happy to be home, and will be taking it easy for the rest of the week under direct orders from Ramón. I am not to clean, cook, do laundry, or any other chores. That will be a challenge, but I also know I really do need to rest and heal. The cats will just have to live with being locked out of the bedroom until my drain gets removed on Monday.