The last 10 days have been a bit of a blur. Parents arrived on 9-11. Pre-op happened on 9-11. Surgery day was 9-12. Talked with the surgeon. Saw the patient for the first time. (Insert deer in headlights look.) 3.5 days in ICU, 3.5 days in a normal room. Exited the hospital on 9-19. Blood draw on 9-20. High school football game on 9-20 (cause that is normal activity following discharge!). Saturday and Sunday felt REALLY weird without a doctor appointment or a blood draw. Today was both, a blood draw and a follow up in the surgeon’s office.
We seem to live life by numbers now:
- You are HOW old and having heart surgery? 40
- You had HOW many catheters? 2
- You had HOW many drains? 2
- Wow…you had HOW many IV’s? 3
- You can walk HOW far without symptoms pre-surgery? Miles
- What is your current INR? 2.2
- What is your Cumadin dose? 5mg
- When is your next test? 9-26
- You took HOW many walks today? varies based on the day
Numbers, numbers, numbers.
Throughout this journey we have continued to remind ourselves of how very lucky we are. One of the places in the hospital that gave us loads of perspective on life is the Cardiac ICU. Think you are having a bad day? Think you have a mountain to climb? Go to the ICU and hang out there for about 30 minutes and if your life perspective is not adjusted, there is something seriously wrong with you.
We were so lucky that Jerry had been extubated prior to entering the ICU, as many others there were not so lucky. It is sobering to walk into a room and see so many things sticking out of your loved one. We had been told about ALMOST all of it, but they skipped the wires. It truly looked like he had a battery pack with WIRES coming out of it and going into the middle of his chest. What the f***?! My mind was thinking: What question did I not ask? What did they do wrong? Does that stay there?
I asked what the wires were…kinda wish I hadn’t. It was a temporary pacemaker. “You know, just in case.” Ummmm….great.
- Me: Do you remove that?
- Nurse: Yes.
- Me: How do you remove that?
- Nurse: We snip the stitch and pull the wires out.
- Me: Scuse me, say what now?
Within 4 hours of Jerry being out of the OR were a couple of my favorite memories of that day:
- Jerry ended up with a gastric bubble in his stomach post op. They had to put a tube up his nose to drain it. He tolerated the whole thing very well (read: he was VERY drugged). Right before the nurse pulled the line out he turned his head toward me and said “I swallowed my nose.” At that point I just agreed with him but it did make me giggle.
- There was a moment when he realized that he had an IV in his left wrist. This had been placed after he was knocked out for surgery. They had strapped his wrist to a foam pad so he couldn’t move it. At one point he picked up his arm and turned it this way and that examining everything through his drugged haze. When he was done examining his hand/arm he just laid it back down and closed his eyes again. I could literally here him thinking “what the hell is going on here?”
- Final favorite moment was with his nurses. It was shift change at 7pm. The look on Ashley’s face when Alex told her that Jerry left the OR at 2pm and he had already eaten ice cream, drank some chicken broth and had drank 2 glasses of ice water. THAT was the moment I knew we were lucky, blessed, whatever you want to call it. THAT was when I knew age and fitness were on our side. THAT was when I knew he would be okay.
Thank you all for the support and love. More soon. NB
