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shipperxEverything has gone as well as could be hoped. Dad has done really well. He went in at 4am on Tuesday with surgery scheduled at 7:30am. The doctor said that he would attempt to repair the heart valve rather than replace. Not all heart surgeons will attempt this and apparently even fewer would attempt it with my Dad's particular heart deformity, but this doctor did and the cardiologist's report was that it was the best repair that he's seen. There was absolutely no bleed-back post the repair, so that worked great. He also had a triple by-pass, which also went well. And a "maze" which was where they apparently cut the nerve that seems to have been misfiring in his heart causing the defribulation (don't ask me to spell now. Too groggy). They won't know how well that will ultimately work out for 6 months, but for now it was firing well.
Going into the surgery they had thought he would be on a respirator for days, but post-surgery, things had gone so well they had become a bit overly optimistic and thought that they might remove the respirator by yesterday afternoon. That didn't work out. When we were allowed into the Open Heart ICU at 4:30pm and at 8:30pm he was still on the respirator and the doctor had instructed that he remain so overnight (most cycadian rythems have people lower at night and he really didn't want Dad going down or struggling which might tear stitches. The biggest hurdle in the first 24 hours is not to have a bleed so that they need to go in again, so he decided it was best to keep Dad semi-sedated. Mom and I spent the night in the ICU waiting room. At 8:30am we were allowed back to see Dad and they had removed the respirator. He was awake and looked much better. He had difficulty with speaking because of having been on the respirator for more than 24 hours, but he was awake and alert. You could see that he was feeling much better. The ICU nurse said that they would try to remove all the drains from the incision and if they could do that then they would move him to a private room this evening. She did manage to have all the drains and the catheter removed this afternoon, and dad was moved out of the ICU and into a private room. Earlier this evening they removed the external pacemaker so when I left the hospital he was only on assisted 02 and sleeping. He didn't really eat much dinner (not sure why they gave such difficult to swallow food. I went back to the cafeteria and got yogurt for him, but he wasn't particularly enthusiastic as the smell of the food had made him sort of nauseous. But they at least are back to giving him food, and having removed the cath, they are assisting him to going to the bathroom on his own. They also have him sitting in a chair every few hours. They should try to get him to walk down the hall tomorrow. So all in all, he's done really great. Hopefully he'll have a good night tonight. His room is so small that I came home tonight. Mom will stay with him. We had to wake to go to the hospital a little after 3am Tuesday morning, and we had slept on the sofas in the ICU waiting room last night, so I'm fairly groggy myself. Hopefully, if Dad continues to do well, I have (and my sister has) Friday off and hopefully we can convince her to go to my sister's house to rest in a bed for a few hours (we couldn't even convince her last night to take a room in the "Inn" which is where the hospital has built 40 or so hospital rooms for patient's families, so there's no hope of getting her to leave the hospital tonight... not that we tried. She and he so much better together. But she's running pretty low on sleep so hopefully Friday she'll allow my sister and myself to stay while she gets some sleep. There is a chance that by some time this weekend he may be discharged and allowed to go to my sister's house.
So, tired and relieved right now. Thus far everything has gone as well as could possibly be hoped. He's doing well which is all that's really important.
Going into the surgery they had thought he would be on a respirator for days, but post-surgery, things had gone so well they had become a bit overly optimistic and thought that they might remove the respirator by yesterday afternoon. That didn't work out. When we were allowed into the Open Heart ICU at 4:30pm and at 8:30pm he was still on the respirator and the doctor had instructed that he remain so overnight (most cycadian rythems have people lower at night and he really didn't want Dad going down or struggling which might tear stitches. The biggest hurdle in the first 24 hours is not to have a bleed so that they need to go in again, so he decided it was best to keep Dad semi-sedated. Mom and I spent the night in the ICU waiting room. At 8:30am we were allowed back to see Dad and they had removed the respirator. He was awake and looked much better. He had difficulty with speaking because of having been on the respirator for more than 24 hours, but he was awake and alert. You could see that he was feeling much better. The ICU nurse said that they would try to remove all the drains from the incision and if they could do that then they would move him to a private room this evening. She did manage to have all the drains and the catheter removed this afternoon, and dad was moved out of the ICU and into a private room. Earlier this evening they removed the external pacemaker so when I left the hospital he was only on assisted 02 and sleeping. He didn't really eat much dinner (not sure why they gave such difficult to swallow food. I went back to the cafeteria and got yogurt for him, but he wasn't particularly enthusiastic as the smell of the food had made him sort of nauseous. But they at least are back to giving him food, and having removed the cath, they are assisting him to going to the bathroom on his own. They also have him sitting in a chair every few hours. They should try to get him to walk down the hall tomorrow. So all in all, he's done really great. Hopefully he'll have a good night tonight. His room is so small that I came home tonight. Mom will stay with him. We had to wake to go to the hospital a little after 3am Tuesday morning, and we had slept on the sofas in the ICU waiting room last night, so I'm fairly groggy myself. Hopefully, if Dad continues to do well, I have (and my sister has) Friday off and hopefully we can convince her to go to my sister's house to rest in a bed for a few hours (we couldn't even convince her last night to take a room in the "Inn" which is where the hospital has built 40 or so hospital rooms for patient's families, so there's no hope of getting her to leave the hospital tonight... not that we tried. She and he so much better together. But she's running pretty low on sleep so hopefully Friday she'll allow my sister and myself to stay while she gets some sleep. There is a chance that by some time this weekend he may be discharged and allowed to go to my sister's house.
So, tired and relieved right now. Thus far everything has gone as well as could possibly be hoped. He's doing well which is all that's really important.
