Ocean View

This hospital room is great. Private room, door closed, big window, end of a quiet hallway, and very little beeping or buzzing medical equipment. While it doesn't exactly have the ocean view I requested, it is at least looking East toward the Atlantic :-)

If you are wondering, I have had absolutely no pain with this procedure (and no pain medication, either). The recovery has been from the general anesthesia, which really wiped me out. I've felt better every hour that has passed,  and look forward to getting up and walking tomorrow.

Thanks for all the warm wishes. I'll blog again tomorrow.

Chris

Ahhhh...nothing like a hospital-grade posturepedic!

Chris finally made it to his room for the night.  It is in a quiet end of a nice new area of the hospital.  He is still groggy, and plans to sleep off the anesthesia now that he is in his night-time bed.  

When he had his first stent procedure 4 1/2 years ago, he had 4 hours of bedrest after the procedure and was up and walking before dinner.  Due to the size of the leg incision necessary for the Melody valve, he had more bleeding post insertion, so will be on bedrest for the night.  Not something he was planning on, but necessary to ensure a nice recovery for the incision point.  

His belly isn't yet ready for food, though he is allowed to order some whenever his appetite reurns.   Laura, his wonderful nurse, just brought him a Popsicle to wet his whistle.  Those wet sponges weren't quite cutting it.  Yuck!

After a good night's sleep, he will have an echo, along with some other tests in the morning.  All being well, he will be discharged and home in time for dinner.

Anesthesia kinds sucks

I am with Chris in recovery as he continues to wake up.  He is still kinda in and out.  Though in no pain from his procedure, he is feeling just generally icky from the anesthesia.  He has to lie still for 4 hours to let the leg wounds heal some before adding movement.  Once he gets over the affects of the anesthesia thing, it will be the lying still that will be the hard part.  He just put in his tunes and is going to try to sleep it off.

They keep saying they have a room for him, but we are still waiting for them to prove it...

It's All Good

Chris just finished up and is now in recovery.  Things went well.  It was a little longer than expected as after each step they measure and monitor before continuing on.  Not surprisingly, his existing stent needed to be reinforced with another before inserting the Melody Valve, which is also attached to a stent.  So now he is triple reinforced :-)

As the pop culture idol from the early 2000s would say - he's like an onion. Because onions have layers.  (500 points will be awarded to the first caller to name the reference correctly)

I am waiting to see him in recovery.  Could still be a while...

Thanks to Nika and Luke for coming down to sit with me, to Eddie for being Alli's taxi today, to Alli for taking care of Laney, and to the rest for your thoughts and prayers.  

Let's get the party started

Chris just put on his 'party hat', as his anesthesiologist called it, and rolled into the OR.  Though his procedure started 30 minutes behind schedule, it is all for the best.  Instead of sharing a team of anesthesiologists covering three rooms, he ended up with his own team that will be with him throughout his whole procedure.  

His doctor said the length of the procedure is hard to predict, but will be somewhere between 2 - 4 hours.  I'll let you know more when he's all done.

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and support. It means the world to all of us.

Earlier start, earlier finish

My procedure just got moved to 7:30am (from 11am).  Seems there was a mixup with scheduling the right anesthesiology team.  I'm glad they figured this out now!

Follow me here

If you're interested to hear how my procedure goes this Wednesday, watch this blog. For now, here's a preview of the day.

I go into Baltimore around 9am (nice, not too early) and the procedure is scheduled to begin at 11.  It can last as long as 4 or 5 hours, and I'll need to lay on my back in recovery for an additional 4 hours afterward (to let my leg wounds heal). I'll be under general anesthesia so will be out of it for most of that recovery time, but when I'm able (probably in the evening) I'll be sure to update you here :-)

Here's to all the hard-working medical professionals, scientists, and doctors who came up with this futuristic heart valve option. I am eternally grateful!