Thinking of you all

Hope everything is positive.

Wishing her/you all, all the best.

Wishing you the best!

Positive vibes from me too. And a puppy kiss from carrot.

The info came back good, she has no plaque buildup that has to be addressed. (It's "only" major aorta and aortal valve replacement, and not a bypass operation.)

I was going to stay until the visiting hours are over, but mom told me to beat it before the rush hour. She doesn't know that J is going to be paying her an unannounced visit later tonight. J doesn't have to do that. But J is a beautiful human being. She simply said "Everybody hates to be in the hospital!"

Thems 2 good women, UT

So is the surgery tomorrow?

Surgery is Wednesday. She gets the preliminaries tomorrow, buncha tests and drugs and whatnot.

Good vibes and such. Break a leg or good luck or whatever it is that you're supposed to say before something like this. I hope it all goes off without a hitch - but they're professionals, I'm sure it will. They know what they're doing.

Good luck to her and y'all. Positive vibes being sent your way so put up you vibe catching net!

I'm picturing something like a dream catcher...

maybe it's more strenuous.... like JellyFishing!

We are praying for your Mom Tony.

Smart woman. Keeper.

I hope your mom is feeling better soon.

I'm glad things went well today. We'll be thinking of her, and you.

Hugs, hope and prayers for your mom.
Good thoughts for her from down here.

I always say, you're lucky this [insert complicated medical scenario] didn't happen 100 years ago.

At least we understand things a little better, and you aren't totally ƒucked. You know, for what it's worth.

Glad to hear the news, UT. I hope things continue to stay positive. X


Sent by thought transference

How are things this evening, UT?

I was totally exhausted last night... surgery begins at about 11am today.

Thinking of you guys *smiles*

hoping for the best possible outcome, everything's crossed (that's why my typing is so bad)

Thinking about you guys. Good luck!

Big giant thoughts for you today. Please let us know how it goes.

She'll be ready to run a marathon in no time. What hospital is it?

x

Penn Presbyterian. She is in prep and they begin cutting in a half hour

Why am I writing this. I know, sharing helps. Her procedure began at 13:00 and is expected to last 392 minutes. That is 90 minutes longer than we were told. J guesses that it means they have decided to replace her aortic valve. They replace it with a pig valve.

Wow...that's a long time.

Ain't nuthin' gonna go wrong, fella! :comfort:

And just like that the procedure is over and she didn't need valve replacement. She's not out of the water but the surgeon was very optimistic.

That's a marathon surgery. And a long time for you to be waiting in the waiting room for news. I'm glad you have J with you.

When a surgery gets to be that long, there are basic bodily functions for the surgeons that you have to wonder about. Do they work in shifts to get breaks?

That's like a transatlantic flight, and on one of those, they give you a meal and a snack or two and you use the toilets once or twice during that time.

Edit: I took a long time to write that and missed the update.

Glad to hear it went well.

I am so happy for you and Katkeeper (and J of course, who is alongside you)
Although KK's recovery is only just beginning.

Love, love, love.

Getting through surgery is a huge milestone.
Even routine surgeries can throw up complications.
She's out and is on the right road.

Oh, so happy it went smoothly UT. Give your mom a big Get Well Soon from Yorkshire.

hurrah!

Been thinking of you guys today.
Relieved to hear things went well.

Good to see positive news at the end of the day, here.

The ICU nurse woke her out of sedation briefly, and got her to move her hands and legs. She moved all four, which means she didn't have a debilitating stroke during surgery. (4% of patients having this procedure do have a stroke.)

Tomorrow morning they will raise her out of sedation completely and remove her breathing tube, and then we'll know she's 100% out of danger.

It's all positive!! Every last tidbit of news is positive.

:thumb:

Great news Toad - I'll continue to keep you all in my thoughts.

Great to hear UT. Thanks for keeping us posted.

Thanks for keeping us informed UT. Healing vibes being beamed across the Atlantic as I write!

Nice! That's great to hear. She did good work. :)

She's been woozy and a little confused in the ICU this morning. But she's also been complaining, so we know she's herself. I'm still worried about her mental faculties but I have no basis to understand where she is with meds and stuff.

ICU nurse: OK, you are retaining a lot of fluids from the operation, so we're going to give you a drug and you'll pee them out.
Me: is it Lasix?
Nurse: it is.
Me: my dog is on Lasix. She leaves puddles everywhere.
Nurse: that won't be a problem here.
Me: yeah some days I want to put a catheter up my dog.

:lol2: She sounds fine to me! I'm so glad things went well.

Snort!

http://cellar.org/2012/icu0.jpg

Center city at noon, looking east from the west philly hospital parking garage roof.

http://cellar.org/2012/icu1.jpg

57 pulse, 98 blood oxygen, 130/51 blood pressure, 14 I never figured out.

http://cellar.org/2012/icu2.jpg

Mom hates, *hates* bad pictures of herself, so don't tell her I did this. I think it was a physician's assistant who came in and tested her vision because she was having issues with her eyesight. She tested two things: peripheral vision, which is being tested here; and stroke, which was trying each eye out independently to make sure the vision was the same in each.

The machine there at the bottom of the pic is attached to the green cuffs around the calves. It squeezes the calves gently, regularly, like a blood pressure machine, to make sure no blood is pooling there. The red pillow on her lap is given to all heart patients, as a thing to squeeze to maintain a little reverse pressure on the chest when they want to cough, sneeze, or (I suppose) laugh. The orange footy socks are for all patients.

S.I.C.U. stands for Surgical ICU, and all hospital pros say "sick-you" and never "Ess-Eye-See-You". The other ICU here is Medical ICU, and I have yet to hear somebody say "mick-you", although surely they must.

Unlike other hospitals, every sick-you room here is private, and every room has all the supplies needed for patient care. One nurse described it as unique to her ICU experience.

http://cellar.org/2012/icu3.jpg

Every room here, ICU and "regular", has a whiteboard for simple communications. Valentine, a tall, dark African man, was responsible for sticking her fingertips for blood sugar tests. She loved him, and by the end of her sick-you stay, they were sharing conspiracy theories about the oncoming inevitable war for water.

Thanks UT. I love that last paragraph. That's really cool. :)

WOOT for Katkeeper! WTG for UT and his (large and extended) circle of loved ones who care for him and his. I'm glad to hear all is as well as it is.

happy happy happy!

Breaths per minute?

Judging by the line/symbol next to it, I'd say katkeeper has watched nyan cat 14 times?

Klout score?

Valentine told me that his mother died 3 months ago, at the same time as Whitney Houston; and his father died 2 years ago, at the same time as Michael Jackson.

He said with a grin that he was only sorry his parents got no traction with the media when they passed.

:)

My grandma died the same day as Diana.

Mom said Peter at the gates said "Oh, there's our classy beautiful person. And look! Diana too!"

The 14 is her breathing rate.

I only know this because I watched those damn things all day every day for months.

Ohmygod I HATE those things. They made me wear them after my second c-section, and I was literally clawing at my legs in frustration. It wasn't painful, more like Chinese water torture. After maybe 2 hours I just took them off under the blankets and didn't tell anyone.

Glad Momz is doing Good !!

Well today was not as good, and now we understand. Yesterday she was still under the effects of the meds they had her on during surgery. Today those wore off and she had a lot of pain for a while before the new meds went on.

It turns out you are supposed to not have pain, because you need to cough post-surgery but coughing is painful if your chest has recently been cracked open.

At the same time, while we were visiting she went into atrial fibrillation, and she felt like it was hard to breathe while her heart started beating really fast and awkwardly. The doc on call was called, and we were ushered out of the room while they tested her and settled her with IV meds. This is a common reaction after heart surgery, and is probably not overly serious, but you never know, and to have all that activity while we were there was just unsettling.

She is not out of the woods yet.

... <STRESS> ...

Hang in there, everybody.