Summer Waning Strawberry Moon
Kate’s into her second post-op day, just. I talked to her on the phone and she has dry mouth and wants lozenges. She says her fever went up overnight, but has now gone down. Wind, water, walking, wound, wonder-drugs is a sequence for diagnosing the likely source of an infection post-op. Wind related fevers usually occur in the first to second day post-op and result from breathing tubes, being on a ventilator and other anesthesiology related sources. 3-5 days post-op come catheter related infections-water and especially in orthopedic patients, walking at 4-6 days. Walking as soon as possible usually prevents the walking related fevers by eliminating the deep vein thrombosis that is their cause.
The wound itself becomes a concern after 5-7 days. Again, as with walking, preventive measures, like pre-surgery anti-biotics, care for the surgery site before the operation and, now, an occlusive bandage over the site all help prevent this.
Finally, wonder drugs themselves can cause a fever in the week post-op.
All this means is that Kate’s progressing through the post-op maze of possible problems. She’s not worried about it and neither am I.
Gotta go. She needs lozenges.
