Surgery recovery is hard. The incision hurts. Nurses poke with needles at all hours of night. Sleep is non-existent. Machines beep. And you have to drag an IV pole everywhere with you for days at a time.
What no one tells you is how boring it can be too. You can only watch bad daytime tv for so long. Magazines get so unexciting. Yes, even the crappy gossip mags arent entertaining anymore.
Today we spent time napping and reading and did some Christmas shopping research online for Grace.
And tomorrow, we will probably do the same thing.
We are both really looking forward to going home to our own bed, our own tv selections, and most of all, our little girl.
Just a mom and a wife managing to keep it all together with a daughter and husband with Marfan Syndrome.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
New Ticker
5 1/2 hours of waiting. Three update calls from the OR nurse. Two magazines read cover to cover and back again. Two trips to the coffee cart for more caffeine.
And one really happy wife when the surgeon came out and said that the surgery went well and the patient was great!!!
On Thursday, B had aortic root replacement. We had hoped going into the OR that the aortic valve could be saved - the valve-sparing procedure was just what we really wanted to do and it seemed that B was a good candidate for it with this surgeon. Once in the OR, the aortic valve was damaged - a few tears and holes in the flaps indicated that it would have to be replaced within 10 years so the surgeon decided to replace it now. A good decision as we would prefer to avoid this in the future but honestly, we were a bit disappointed. With the mechanical valve, B will need to take blood thinner for the rest of his life. You can hear the valve clicking - it sounds like a faint tick of a clock. He says that he can feel it too. Over time, we wont hear it anymore cause we will be used to the sound. However, sitting in a meeting or in an elevator, people around B will hear it.
B is doing so great......22 hours after being wheeled into the OR, he was released from ICU and is now resting in the cardiac surgery unit. And it looks like we will be out of the hospital on Tuesday.
And one really happy wife when the surgeon came out and said that the surgery went well and the patient was great!!!
On Thursday, B had aortic root replacement. We had hoped going into the OR that the aortic valve could be saved - the valve-sparing procedure was just what we really wanted to do and it seemed that B was a good candidate for it with this surgeon. Once in the OR, the aortic valve was damaged - a few tears and holes in the flaps indicated that it would have to be replaced within 10 years so the surgeon decided to replace it now. A good decision as we would prefer to avoid this in the future but honestly, we were a bit disappointed. With the mechanical valve, B will need to take blood thinner for the rest of his life. You can hear the valve clicking - it sounds like a faint tick of a clock. He says that he can feel it too. Over time, we wont hear it anymore cause we will be used to the sound. However, sitting in a meeting or in an elevator, people around B will hear it.
B is doing so great......22 hours after being wheeled into the OR, he was released from ICU and is now resting in the cardiac surgery unit. And it looks like we will be out of the hospital on Tuesday.
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