Dang-it!

Sydney says Dang-it all the time. We got it on video and just had to share it!

Sydney Singing

Home

We are home and David is doing as good as could be expected. He's still in a lot of pain, but handling it well. The medicine that he's on makes him a little anxious and irritable (especially with the kids), and he has trouble sleeping at night. Every day seems to be a lot better and he's mentioned that he doesn't hurt as bad as he did in the hospital. We've been through this before and know that all you can do it just take it one day at a time. This kids are glad to have daddy back home. Audrey and Sydney will come home tomorrow and we are all anxious to see them. Maybe having the whole family back together will make things seem a little more normal. Our house sure is quiet with the babies gone!

Coming Home

The word on the hospital floor is we're coming home today. I don't really know what time, but I'm guessing we'll get to leave by early afternoon. Yesterday, David took a shower, which took a lot out of him, and we went for a couple of walks around the hall. He's been really sleepy which I think is the some from just coming out of surgery, but a lot is the pain medication. The electrophysiologist came and saw him and said that they were going to reprogram his pace make a little bit. Before it was pacing his whole heart, which means that if his heart didn't beat, it would first fire the upper chamber and then the lower chamber. From the tests that they did, they really didn't see a problem with the conduction on the way down his heart. The upper chamber is really the problem, it likes to take a nap. So if they just fire the upper chamber then the rest of his heart naturally beats along with it. The doctors prefer that if his body can do it on its own, it's best if his heart beats more naturally, althought they have it set so that if the lower chamber needs help the pace maker will provide it. These pace makers are amazing. He will have to be seen personally in about a month, but after that they will give him a system for at home and he will transfer information from the pacemaker in his belly, through the phone to the doctors. Isn't that amazing?

Again, thank you everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers! Thank you for everyone that has helped with the kids. We are truly grateful!

Saturday Morning

David's doing even better today. He's still in a lot of pain. We had a full day yesterday, lots of doctors came in, he had occupational therapy, physical therapy, a chest x-ray, the electrophysiology doctor came and worked on his pace maker, and they pulled out the central line in his neck. Now he has a big whole where they pulled that line. David said he didn't sleep great last night, he felt kind of congested and woke up every few minutes, but he said that he got better sleep early this morning.

The doctor that's in charge of this floor came in early this morning and examined David, he wanted him to sit up so he could listen to his lungs and that doctor actually pulled him up by his arm. That was excruciating! I wish they would teach the doctors what the patient is able to do after their chest is opened up. The therapists preach and preach to you about not pushing or pulling anything over 5 lbs, and then the doctor comes in and hurts you. One doctor is saying we may go home today and another is talking about tomorrow, we'll find out later today, I guess.
Things are really going well, we just have to get throught the long healing process.

Friday Morning

David is doing a lot better this morning. At this moment he is sitting up in a chair eating breakfast. He has been advanced to a regular diet and his nausea seems to be gone. Yesterday afternoon he got the two chest tubes taken out. Then we were moved to a regular room on the cardiac floor. Once we got there we saw the doctors on this floor and they said they wanted the catheter taken out, and the IV in his neck. The catheter is out, but we are still waiting for the neck IV to be removed. David has a little swelling in his hands and feet and so they gave him "compression socks" to help the swelling go down. He slept good last night, and has advanced from IV pain medication to oral medication. Other than being in a lot of pain (and being a little cranky) he's doing well. He says the pain is tolerable until he has to adjust himself or cough. They haven't said when we'll be able to go home, but I'm thinking it will be either tomorrow or Sunday. We are waiting to see Dr. Weiss today, he should be in between 10:00 and 12:00.

Thursday Morning

We made it through the worst of it, I hope. They let us come in and see David at about 10:00 last night. That was really hard, it's always quite a shock. He was having shivers due to coming out of the anesthesia so his whole body shook quite a bit. He also was having trouble with nausea and was in a lot of pain. He would talk to us, but kept his eyes closed most of the time. He said when he opened his eyes he was seeing double. David's blood pressure was pretty high when he came out and so they gave him medicine to fix it and by about 2 am it was back to normal. He had a chest x-ray last night and then again this morning. We asked the nurse and he said the x-ray is looking for fluid collecting around his heart. He was pretty miserable most of the night. By about 3am they finally had given enough pain medication that David was able to sleep. He says that he feels ok, he feels like he isn't sick, just in a lot of pain. He says it feels like somebody opened up his chest, go figure. Through the night he asked a lot of questions, he wanted to know how long the surgery took, he wanted to know how it went and if he had any chest tubes (he has 2). He also wanted to know if I'd gotten anything to eat. He's always worried about everyone else. He wanted us to hold his hand, and at one point he even asked me to give him a kiss. Normally he would have Sydney do it, but I guess I had to do because she's not here.

Right now David is sleeping peacefully. He wanted the oxygen off but they won't let him because it always dips too low. The plan is to move him to a regular room later today, and then the chest tubes should come out tomorrow. That's how things move in the hospital, he loses one tube at a time. His pace maker has been kicking in, it works when his heart rate drops below 60. All through the night his heart rate was around 100, but now is at 60 and the monitor says it is being paced. Even though this will be a long process, things are moving in the right direction and we are thankful that everything went well.