My boyfriend is on his way to Ft. Worth to have heart surgery. His plane left at 9:30 this morning, and I am very scared/nervous, but also confident the doctors will do the best job. He has one of the top 10 cardiologists in the US.
He will land in Ft. Worth, then check in to the hospital. They are going to do a complete checkup on him, and determine exactly what they are going to do during the surgery. At this point, they are going to replace his pacemaker, put a stent (sp?) in his heart, and potentially there will be some angioplasty going on somewhere. They are going to do a heart catheter today to find out exactly the extent of the damage. They have already told him that at best possible outcome, he will be able to get on a plane on Monday to come back to Atlanta. Amazing.
So, light a candle, say a prayer or chant, think good thoughts, yell “I BELIEVE IN FAIRIES!”, whatever you think it will take, because right now I am nervous as hell. Heck, the plane probably hasn’t even landed yet, and I’m a wreck. So, I know tomorrow is going to be a long, hard day.
**Skerri ** - you and your boyfriend are in my prayers. I can imagine it’s much more difficult if your not able to be with him during this time. Take Care, think good thoughts, and keep us up to date as to how he’s doing.
I am a home health nurse, and I take care of plenty of post-surgical patients, especially CABG (coronary artery bypass graft) and other cardiac surgeries. I am constantly amazed at how quickly the patients recover! I hope things go well, good thoughts are coming your way.
Well, I work in a hospital (albeit the psych ward) and I talked to a nurse today who kind of assuaged my fears about all of this. Last night I had this horrible nightmare that Z would come back with staples and stitches all over, but she said that most of the stuff they’ll be doing will probably be microsurgery.
He hasn’t called yet, but I’m sure he had to get to the hospital ASAP so they could do the catheter. He’ll probably call me tonight to let me know what’s going on. I really wish I could have gone with him, but right now isn’t the best time for me to be out of work. Besides, his mom is with him, and she drives me nuts. (Well, sometimes.) I just don’t think I could have handled hanging out with her all day and not had a break.
As soon as I get some sort of update, I’ll post it here. Thanks for all your good thoughts.
Well, he went into surgery at 8 this morning. I talked to his mother at 11:30, and she said that they decided last night not to replace the pacemaker. They have left the option open, though, because it would only take 2 more hours to do. The dr. said that he has approximately a year or two of battery life on the current pacemaker, but I really hope they do replace it so he doesn’t have to do this again in two years.
I did get REALLY REALLY good news from him last night though. Dr. Gillette told him that he won’t have to have a heart transplant in the next five years! YAY! Of course, he probably will have to have one in 15 years, but hey, that’s 15 more years I have! YAY YAY YAY! I talked to Z last night, and he is SO relieved about this.
Zebra, yes, his name starts with a Z. His name is Zed. And the first person (not that anyone will) that says “Zed’s dead, baby. Zed’s dead.” will personally be kicked square in the nuts. I heard that sound clip on the radio last night and almost called the DJ to yell at him. (He’s a friend, but he didn’t know what was going on with me.)
Thank you all. I know that all your good thoughts, prayers, etc. are going to help me and him to get through all this. And when we get hitched, you’ll all be invited to the wedding.
Well, he’s out of surgery. No new pacemaker, no stent just yet. Just a couple of heart catheters, and some major decisions will be made next week. He was anaestatised (sp?) for about 4 hours, so it will be a while before he’s un-groggy. His mom said she saw him for a moment before he went to recovery, and he gave her the thumbs up, so I think he’s feeling ok.
Thanks again for all the good thoughts. Just keep us there, since this next week will be a stressful one.
