Dad - Day 6 - Part 2

Dad is out of surgery and all went well. The surgeon bypassed 3 vessels and removed his left atrial appendage to get rid of the atrial fib that he was in (the funky heart rhythm that started the other night). I was thankful for this because it will cut down on one medication that he will need to take when this is all said and done.

We just were allowed to go back and see him for a few minutes and I am sure everyone else would have a different opinion, but from a nurses perspective, I think he looks good. They had him on a touch of Dopamine (a medicine to keep his blood pressure up), but it is at such a low level that I am sure the nurse will be able to turn it off shortly. Because they fixed his heart rhythm, I believe they will turn that medication off shortly, as well. They were getting ready to start his sedation back up to make sure that he stays calm and comfortable. He will most likely also stay on the breathing machine for at least the day (hopefully more). He still has his PICC line from the other day and now has a new central line with Swan Ganz (a fancy internal measuring device for my non-nurses), an a-line and a total of 3 chest tubes. The surgeon did say that his lung definitely has an abcess and he didn't want to get involved with that today. He is going to treat him with antibiotics and see what happens in a few days. He may need to surgically fix that as well, but it is a wait and see kind of thing. Dad's white blood cell count has cut in half since his admission, so he is definitely already responding to the antibiotics that they have him on.

Today they are really going to cut back on the visitation. They asked for 2 hours to get him organized and settled and then will allow us to go back two at a time. I think that they saw how rowdy we were in the waiting room....reminiscing was a good way to pass the time, but we laughed a little more than I think they expected. They actually put us in a private waiting room they call the quiet room....what were they thinking!!! With my family, this room will never be quiet, but it is nice that they have allowed the rest of the visitors some quiet time away from us.

I will try to do at least one more update later today, as I am sure that we will get more information later.

It sounds like we get one more day to gather our strength, so I am thankful. As soon as he gets his strength back and the tube out, the true test will begin.

Once again, I have been amazed by everything! I thank God for all of you and everything that you have all done for me and my family! We are so blessed!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!