Excuse Me For Writing This Backwards
We are back in Memphis now, Mom is working on her recovery and there is much to catch you all up
on.
After our midnight hotel room move,we finally settled in for a quick nap. Mom had to be up and have finished her breakfast by 7:00 eastern time and be at the clinic early for all of her pre-op tests, mri's , ekg's, echo's, etc. By early Wednesday afternoon she had her first procedure which required her to be admitted and stay in an observation room overnight. Dad and I weren't expecting that, so off we went to the cafeteria for dinner and rest up for the next day of supporting her for surgery.
Now, this surgery is a fascinating thing. If you know anything at all about aortic repair it can be a very dicey procedure. So precarious, that the reason this one was not done in Memphis is that it isn't offered there. Cleveland Clinic is the only hospital offering this stent graft. They have been performing the trial for approximately 10 years and have done thousands but still a trial as we understand because they are still 'tweaking' the process. The long and short of it (pun intended) is that a flexible stent is inserted inside of the aorta. In Mom's case in two stages. The first stage is the upper section which sits just behind the heart and extends through the thoracic area. Her aneurysm is quite impressive so this section of stent did not quite cover all of it. The stent is also a graft so the capallaries will start to infuse from her outside of her existing aorta wall to inside of her new stent. How cool is that? I thought of putting some photos of the stent here as I find it all so interesting, but realized that some of you may not. So I will refrain.
Mom's surgeon is a bit of a, correction, a total control freak. I am actually quite ok with that. One of the things he does is send his patients having this procedure straight from surgery to ICU.We learned from a nurse there that is his way of not losing control of his patients.. I hope this doesn't offend any recovery nurses out there.. While mom was in ICU immediately after surgery she had a bit of time getting comfortable. Well, hello! Who wouldn't? If you have followed her blog or know her well, during her very first surgery a dear friend, RuthAnne Talley gave her a throw blanket from her beloved team the Memphis Tigers. It has been through open heart surgery, two hip replacements, rehap twice, another trip to the hospital..but it accidentally got left behind on this trip. She was fretting about it when we arrived in Cleveland and I happened to mention it to my husband Jim. Imagine my surprise when dad and I returned from that first long day at the hospital to regroup for a few minutes to find this in our room
The plan was that Mom stay in the hospital from May 3 until the 14th. But... they don't know Mom. On the 11th we were on a plane headed home. Now I know what you are thinking, no we didn't just bust out! We had an official discharge and were approved to leave. She still has orders to 'chill out'. This is also a graft and as such has to do its thing to heal. But, she also can get up and move around, just needs to rest appropriately. She sees her cardiologist in a few days.. will update again soon.
We just can't thank you all for your prayers and support. The uplifting of positive energy could be felt as we anxiously waited in ICU for every update on that blue pager hanging around dad's neck.
