Obviously I am not yet up and blogging again, but my wonderful sister Kristin is helping me to record my adventure.
Jon wanted me (Kristin) to let everyone know about how his big day went. After arriving bright and early at the hospital this morning, Jon was brought back to get himself changed and ready for surgery at 6:30 this morning. The surgery itself was supposed to start at 8 a.m., but was delayed by an hour. Jon was lucky though because he was able to spend plenty of time with everyone who came to see him through his surgery this morning. Jon was in good spirits and joking around prior to going back for the procedure (see before photo). He also wanted me to say that all of the hospital staff was very nice. While his memories are hazy after he got his "cocktail" of drugs this morning before they wheeled him away, that is where the long wait began for the rest of us.
We were informed that we should expect three phone calls during his surgery to let us know how things were going. The first call was to let us know when the first incision was made. This call happened around 10 a.m.. The second call happened quicker then we expected, only about 45 minutes after the first, this was to tell us that he officially was on bypass (meaning the blood was redirected to bypass his heart so they could actually get in there and fix the valve). The doctor worked his magic and by 12:15, the doctor called to let us know that he was off of bypass and the bovine valve was in place and his aortic aneurysms was repaired. After they finished sewing him up and stabilizing him, we were able to see him in the ICU by 2:30.
It took Jon awhile to fully wake up from anesthesia. At first he was on a breathing tube and not very responsive, although he heard more then he was able to express as he had a breathing tube in for the first few hours in the ICU. Obviously, he could not talk with the tube in his throat, but after I took the first after photo he did manage to give a thumbs up. After a couple more hours, Jon got his breathing tube out around 5 p.m. and was breathing on his own. His first word after it was removed, "Moo". This all was very impressive. Jon was great in surgery and actually did not require any blood or fluids during his operation. When the doctor did his rounds, about six hours after leaving Jon, he said that he looked how many of his patients look after three days!
Although Jon is in pain, he is expected to be moved out of the ICU and into a private room tomorrow early in the afternoon if space allows. There will be more to come in the following days, please check back soon and take a look at some of the photos.
No comments:
Post a Comment