The Heart - An Unexpected Journey {Part 3}

It is Sunday, December 1 and I am sitting beside Bryan's hospital bed. He is finally getting some much needed sleep and quiet. On Friday, November 29 we got to the hospital at 4:45 a.m. and he was admitted and at 5:00 a.m. they began prep and blood work

and then at 6:30 they took him down to surgery to finish prep and begin the journey to his heart. At 7:30 the nurse in surgery called me to say that they were almost done with prep and things were progressing nicely. At 7:40 or so Dr. Oaks came out and explained to me what he was going to be doing and about how long it would take. The surgery began at 8:00 a.m. I can not begin to explain how wonderful the entire surgery, nursing, Administrative and even security staff were. I felt so informed and cared for. They had a nurse in surgery who called me about every 2 hours with an update about what they were doing and how Bryan was doing. At 9:40 they got Bryan on the bypass, one of the PAs came out and talked at length with us about what had happened before they could put him on the bypass they had to open him up, remove any scar tissue from the last surgery and detach the heart from the chest cavity. After a heart surgery the heart attaches to the scar tissue. All this is very dangerous considering they don't have the bypass to fall back on if something goes wrong. Then he went and took care of some minor check-in details that I was concerned about (as if he wasn't busy enough) and the next thing I knew there was the Nursing Director and the ICU nurse that would care for Bryan and they were telling us what to expect and had come to see if we needed anything from them. 

They had arranged a private room for the girls and I to hang out in if we felt the need to just get away from people. So wonderful. At 11:20 the call came that the valve had been replaced and he was starting on the stem repair. At 12:47 the call came that he was finished with the stem repair and was reattaching the coronary arteries. At 2:14 the call came that he was off the bypass and his heart was working on its own. At 3:33 the call came that Dr. Oaks was about 30 minutes away from being done and Bryan was about 45 minutes from being taken to ICU. At 4:15 Dr. Oaks came out and talked to the girls and I and said that Bryan was responding amazingly and was an extremely strong and healthy person. He said the surgery could not have gone any better. He had put in a tissue valve (it is a titanium core with cow tissues that are injected into a synthetic material and they grow over that) in the aortic valve spot and he replaced all of his aortic stem with a synthetic material but the extent that needed to be replaced required that he detach all the coronary arteries to access that so they had to all be reattached. At 5:09 ICU called and said that Bryan was trying to wake up too fast and they needed to slow him down but that he was doing great. Dr. Oaks came back down and talked to us and told us he was doing so good it was just necessary to slow him down. At 6:40 they called and said that the girls and I should come up and see him. So 12 hours after I left him as he was being wheeled down to surgery I was able to see him again. 

It was hard to look at all the tubes and lines in him but I was grateful for every one of them! At one point when Bobbi and I were in with him she said "Sounds like you are doing really well." and he said "I'm tough, I'm a cowboy." He doesn't remember saying that but we all heard it so...

Yesterday, Saturday November 30, they removed him from all the lines in his neck (leaving the port there just in case they need it and also to administer meds into) and all he has left is a temporary pacemaker and the chest tube. They said those will come out tomorrow or early Tuesday.

Today they moved him to progressive care and his ICU nurse said that she had never had a better or nicer patient. Dr. Oaks said that he may come home on Wednesday. Amazing. 

I am so grateful for the nurses and Drs who have cared so well for him here at Bryan Hospital. He has a lot of healing to go yet but he has had such a great start. After this is all over he won't have to take any meds or restrict his activity in any way. That was a huge answer to prayer.