Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Side Trip to Texas

I am in San Antonio looking after my Dad. Hollywood just so happens to be in FL with G-Man and Dad, enjoying her well-deserved spring break. G-Man will be returning with her this weekend to Virginia. My little sidetrip was not planned but came to fruition on Monday evening when Dad called me with the results of his angiogram. He was NOT (as he planned) going home with a different medicine prescription but rather he was staying at the hospital overnight and he was going to have open heart surgery the next day. So yesterday he had quadruple bypass, which unbeknownst to me happens to be a very common surgery. It may be common, but it is major. His surgery lasted 3 hours and fortunately they were able to do it "off-pump," without putting him on a heart/lung bypass machine. They were able to get him off the ventilator within 6 hours. And incredibly they had him into a chair several times today and he actually strolled the halls late this afternoon. He almost looks no worse for the wear although he has had some serious aching in his shoulders, caused by the retractors during surgery. I spent the night at the hospital in his room last night and he rested comfortably thanks to a shot or two of morphine. He had his surgery at TexSAn Heart Hospital, a heart speciality hospital with some of the best surgeons in the country. We are blest that his daughter-in-law, Susan is a critical care cardiac nurse in San Antonio and knows many folks on staff at TexSAn. She has been a godsend.

2 comments:

Tracy said...

How nice to have that flexibility in your job, MI2C. I'm glad you could be there. Sounds like he couldn't be better cared for. Please tell your dad I said hi and that he's in my prayers.

Mom in 2 said...

Tracy - I'll definitely tell him! Thanks.