Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most
agreeable. -Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
Pat,
I probably won't be in attendance tomorrow but Sylvia intends to meet up with Kerry and George to walk to the church.
Hope it's a very good send-off for your mother. Ray
Sat. Oct. 13, 1:30 pm.
So today I have at least a bit of my wits together and will report as I promised.
Background: As most of you know, this was Mike's 2nd open heart
operation. In Sept 2009, he had surgery to correct five problems. The
operation included repairing the leaking mitral valve, correcting his
atrial fibrillation w. a laser procedure (maze),
replacing a portion of his aorta where there was an aneurism about to
explode, replacing his aortic valve w. a St. Jude mechanical valve, and a
bypass procedure to correct a partially blocked brachial artery. That
was a long surgery. "Super sized" as the
doctor said. And it was a long recovery.
Things were going along quite well when all of a sudden, 2 years
ago, Mike started running out of breath and felt fatigued all the time.
Turns out he'd become extremely anemic. He even required 4 blood
transfusions in 2011. So he underwent every test
under the sun, in and out of all the body orifaces. Moderate and
extreme procedures checked his digestive system and urinary tract from
every possible direction. No one could find leaking blood or the cause
of the extreme anemia. He was making red blood
cells at an abnormally high rate, but they were disappearing faster
than he could make them. Eventually, (and it took almost two years to
figure it out), a hematologist determined that his anemia was due to a
faulty heart valve that was damaging the red blood
cells, which the body then removed from his system prematurely. A
second echo-cardiogram performed through the esophagus (from behind the
heart instead of through the rib cage from the front of the body) showed
an abnormal jet stream of blood through the
mitral valve.
The condition is called hemolytic anemia, and although not
life-threatening, it was certainly life-altering, and Mike decided to
have this second surgery to correct the problem.
Yesterday's surgery began very early in the morning. It took more
than two hours before Mike was attached to the bypass machine (heart /
lung). Because there was so much scar tissue surrounding his heart, the
bypass machine was hooked up through the
aorta in his leg. The surgery went very slowly, and to quote the
doctor "Mike's body fought me every step of the way." By that he meant
that the scar tissue (which he described as extremely angry and nasty)
did not cooperate in being removed. Mike came
off the bypass machine at 12:50 and they closed him up, finishing
around 2:30. So well more than 6 hours in all. A long wait.
The surgeon quipped that he would have to charge Mike double the price since it took so long.
Early this morning, or possibly during the night, they removed the
ventilator (breathing tube). He could speak this morning, altho' his
voice is very raspy. He is not comfortable and keeps forgetting to
press his "self medication button" before the pain
becomes acute. He complains most about the drainage tube in his side
which is pumping bloody fluid from around his lungs. He thinks it is
raining because of the sound the machine makes. He's still quite goofy
to talk to.
This morning, I spoke with the cardiologist. He says Mike's doing
fine, but this will be a more difficult recovery because of the effect
that all the scar tissue has on the heart muscle. They are monitoring
his pulse and adjusting it with a pace-making
device. Periodically they turn the electrical impulse down to see if
Mike's pulse has returned to normal. So far, it is too slow, so until
his system finishes waking up from all the drugs, that will be one of
their primary focuses.
When the amount of fluid draining from his lungs reaches an
acceptably low level, they will remove those drains (hopefully tomorrow)
and he should be more comfortable. They have had him up in a chair,
but until the drain comes out, he will not be able
to start walking around. Movement is very important to control fluid
levels and prevent pneumonia. He is, however, doing his coughing and
breathing exercises (when reminded).
Once all these tubes are out and they determine he is ready, he
will move upstairs from the CRU to a regular room in the cardiac wing.
Then he can have visitors. I'll let you local folks know when that
happens.
That about sums it up. I appreciate your emails and have saved
them all for Mike to read when he comes home. I'll let everyone know
when that happens.
Thanks again for being such good friends and neighbors. Marilyn
No comments:
Post a Comment