6/29/15 Chuck’s report
I wanted to send out an update on Lorraine’s latest aneurysm repair. Very short version is she came through with flying colors once again.
Longer version, we got to the hospital by 6:15 am this morning. The nurse took her into the waiting room and prepped her with the IV and such. She came and got me a couple of times to help with the paperwork then I was able to stay with Lorraine after the 2nd time. The gas passer came by and talked with us about what he was going to do and asked if we had any questions. A short while later the operating room nurse came by to take her to into the operating room at 7:58, not bad for an 8:00 schedule.
Having been through this before, I hung around outside in the hallway and caught the doctor as he was headed towards the operating room and talked with him for a bit. He said he would be finished in less than an hour and would see me again afterwards.
I walked the hallways for awhile, tried reading a magazine then returned back to the hallway to wait for the doctor when he came out of the operating room. An hour passed, then 90 minutes. By now, I was thinking all kinds of bad thoughts, he said he would be done in less than an hour. About 9:50 I saw him and asked why so long. He said he was doing paperwork and everything had gone extremely well, whew. He told me if there were any problems that they would show up in the recovery room or even in her stay in the ICU but that Lorraine had done very well on the “table”.
He did say the gas passer had thought the procedure would take longer and Lorraine was really out and it would be 15 minutes or so before she would be transferred to the recovery room and I could see her as they wheeled her out if I waited in the hallway.
Soon I did see then wheeling Lorraine out in a hospital bed but she was still pretty much out of it. I could get her to open her eyes and knew she was able to talk a bit but that was about all. But she didn’t appear to be showing any bad symptoms, at least any I could see.
I had to wait in the waiting room while she was in the recovery room but the volunteer at the front desk checked on her a couple of times and gave me updates that all appeared to be well in there. A little more than an hour later they were wheeling Lorraine out of recovery and headed towards ICU and I could walk alongside and talk with Lorraine.
She had a very bad headache but they did give her some pain medication and it was getting better. Once again, I didn’t detect any symptoms that she was having any problems and the recovery room nurse said the same thing. Lorraine was holding a cup of ice chips so they had allowed her that much at least and they said she didn’t have any problems swallowing, one common issue from this procedure and I was glad she didn’t have any problems with that.
I had to wait while they got her transferred over to her regular bed in ICU then was allowed in. She was allowed to move around some in bed but she had to keep her right leg straight and not move it from the hip for 4 hours. This was because they inserted the camera and other tools in her femur artery and they wanted to make sure the “plug” they used to seal it off had time to do it’s thing without any movement. She was doing well but was still very tired, sleeping off/on for the first two hours or so.
The nurse gave her more ice chips, some ice water and a cup of Jello, she was happy to have that as she hadn’t had anything to eat since about 9 pm yesterday evening. I asked the nurse if Lorraine could have a liquid diet lunch delivered late and she said she would see if she could make that happen. About an hour later they came by with a tray with some chicken soup, iced tea and another cup of Jello. They also gave her a menu so she could order a regular, full meal deal for dinner.
She enjoyed this light lunch and didn’t have any problems swallowing except for a sour throat from the breathing tube she had while in the operating room. And she was hungry and wanted to have her dinner delivered on the first delivery if possible. She ordered turkey dinner with gravy and said it was really good.
About 5:00 she was allowed to sit up for the first time since 8:00 this morning. I was pleased to see that she wasn’t dizzy at all and was able to stand and turn around just fine, yea. She was only up for about 5 minutes before she had enough but she did just great.
I was getting pretty tired, didn’t sleep well last night and got up early this morning. The day shift nurse was working a 12 hour shift and getting off at 7 so I wanted to wait around to see the oncoming nurse before I left. But it was only a few minutes after 7 when I did leave after meeting the night shift nurse.
Susy’s was watching our dog so I didn’t have to make a quick run every four hours or so to walk or feed her. Susy is still recovery from her neck surgery earlier this month and can’t drive yet so I really appreciate her taking care of Misty for me.
When I left the hospital I just came back to our rig, ate a quick meal and started this note. I’ll be going back to the hospital about 8 tomorrow morning and the doctor told us he would probably allow her to check out before noon tomorrow so that’s our plan, have her back home by noon tomorrow.
I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and good thoughts for Lorraine as she went through this one more time. Like I said, everything is fine and we don’t anticipate any problems to crop up overnight although that is why she is in ICU, she gets more attention from the nurses there than if she was in a regular room.
Susy posted a note on Facebook about Lorraine and she was able to read it and all the replies. She was happy that so many people were praying for her and wants to thank them. I’m sure she will be sending out her thanks on facebook tomorrow.
On a side note, I would like everyone to put my BIL John in their prayers. He has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and needs all the prayers he can get. Too bad we can’t be there to help you and Thelma at this time but we have to take care of Lorraine’s issues down here. But we do have you in our thoughts and prayers everyday!
Thanks Chuck
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