TeamDuggan

The anesthesia medication has been stopped and she is now starting to rouse a bit. The hope is that she can be taken off the ventilator this afternoon. However, her lungs are so full (this is expected) that she may need a bit more time on the vent as support. Her kidneys are consistently improving output but the numbers are expected to climb due to a number of factors. I spoke with the nephrologist this morning and he’s optimistic that longer term this shouldn’t be a problem.
It is highly unlikely that she will remember anything from today or tomorrow. That will be a very good thing since her big concern was the ventilator and all that it entails.
Thanks for all of your expressions of support.

I just spoke with the surgeon. He confirmed that they’ve let her blood pressure drift up and her kidneys are responding well. They will keep her in the cardiovascular recovery unit for today and probably tomorrow. Her lungs are pretty wet so they’ll keep her chest tubes in for now, but the heart hole repair is holding well and there is little drainage from that location. And of course the new valve, which was the original reason she had surgery, is doing quite well. So the standard five to seven days in the hospital after surgery will be a bit different for her. But we’re getting close to going from one hour at a time to one day at a time, or at least a half day at a time.

Things are about the same which is a great blessing. That means the patch is holding, giving the heart time to heal. Her renal numbers are not ideal but that can be due to the impact of the surgery and all the medications she is getting. They will begin to reduce the sedation and extubate her today. Thank you for your comments and prayer. Many are lifting her up to the Father.

My mom is in the cardiovascular recovery room for the next 15-20 hours under complete sedation to allow the hole repair to heal. They are keeping her blood pressure low in order to avoid stress in that area of the heart. Now we wait to see how she stabilizes and when she can come out of sedation and off the ventilator. I’ve come back to her house for the night and will be able to visit her bedside again at ten in the morning. She has 1 to 1 care by the intensive care nurse staff who will contact me if something changes.
Thank you for your continuing prayer support.

My mom needs your prayer. The valve replacement went well but there was a previous hole in her heart that was still leaking and hadn’t healed. Stitches won’t hold because the heart tissue is friable (like sewing cotton candy) so the surgeon used felt pads to pull the gap together and stitched through the pads. He is keeping her blood pressure low to give the heart time to heal but this puts stress on her kidneys. So it’s a delicate balancing act for now. She will be kept sedated for 24 hours in the cardiovascular recovery unit.
Pray for healing of that hole and stable vital signs over these next important hours.

I just spoke with the OR. She is off the bypass machine and her own heart is now bopping along. They will now close the site and the surgeon will come speak with me within a half hour.

I just spoke with the OR. The valve has been replaced and she is still on bypass/heart-lung machine. They are giving her body time to settle and pressures to normalize before they let her heart take over.

No other information, but that is welcome news.

The surgery has just begun and will take four hours or so. I am in the surgical waiting room and will be receiving hourly updates from the OR.

After a good night’s rest my mom was ready to get this game on. She’s now in pre-op and surgery will begin around 8:30 this morning.