We all settled into the CardioVascular waiting room where a nurse comes in every 1½ hours and gives an updated report of what is going on with each patient. At 9:15 she said he was asleep and they were beginning the surgery preparation.
At 10:40AM they had opened up Daddy's chest and were getting ready to put him on the heart/lung bypass machine. She told us that they were going to do the Dacron aortic sleeve and then one bypass. No new valve.
At the 1:40 visit they came in and said that they were in the "drying up" phase - stopping the blood flow, etc. and then would wire him closed, and then close the muscle and tissue.
At 3:20 the nurse told us that he is in ICU Recovery and we would be able to see him in just a little while. Boy were we happy to hear that!
It took a little while but they took us back to see Daddy at 4:05PM. We got to visit with Dr. Oliveira his Cardiologist (the surgeon is Dr. Coselli). Dr. Oliveira had asked me to email him when Daddy was just about finished. He said that the surgery was around 6 hours long. He said that Daddy was not bleeding (as of 4PM) and that he was sedated. Daddy had the Dacron aortic graft put in, no new valve, and a SVG bypass to the left side of his heart. They did not use the mammary artery. The SVG is the saphenous vein from his left leg and the ‘G’ stands for graft once they use it in his heart for the bypass.
We got to see Daddy for just a few minutes and left to go back to the waiting room. He was asleep and on pain meds, and of course had a breathing tube in his throat. They will most likely take it out in the morning around 7-8AM.
We got to go back in at 5:15PM and learned that after our 4:05 visit was over, they woke Daddy up and had him wiggle his fingers and toes. He was in some pain so they gave him some more pain medicine. There were specialized pacemaker technicians at his bedside “interrogating” or checking on his pacemaker to see how it came through surgery. Because of all of the electrical activity during surgery, they are trained to make sure that it is still functioning properly.
The nurse said that Dr. Casar (Dr. Coselli’s eyes and ears in ICU) would see daddy in the morning and decide what course to take after the night is over. He will assess how Daddy is and decide when to take out the breathing tube and when to wake him up. The nurses were thinking that it would probably still be around 11AM.
The nurse suggested that we come back in the morning for the 10AM visit and we will be able to find out more about the plan for Daddy’s recovery. At this time they think that he will be in ICU for up to four days, then possibly another six or so in recovery.
That’s what we know so far. Thank you so very much for your emails and encouraging words of faith and love.
Laura
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