Gifted Hands (Update #2)

Dad had a text book perfect surgery by such a gifted surgeon and we are SO thankful for that. His surgery lasted about 6 hours which is shorter than we expected since we were told 8-10 hours if all went well. When we got the call from the OR nurse that he was being closed we were surprised it was so soon. The surgeon came out and said he did very well and that he went ahead and did the full graph and valve replacement. We were able to go see him shortly after in the PACU and his nurse was going to try to get him extubated before he even went to the ICU so that was great news. He was sleepy but awake and was aware we were all there.

Upon arrival to the ICU I noticed right away he was still intubated and was wondering what happened to cause the dely in getting his tube out as they expected. He as also being paced by an external pacemaker. Come to find out they caught a small pnuemothorax (partial collapsed lung) and they wanted to put in a chest tube to drain the fluid that was collasping his lungs and keep him intubated overnight and let him rest

So we all decided to go home and rest since Dad having us there does him no good right now. He is heavily sedated and comfortable- well we hope. He is in great hands and we will be back tomorrow morning to spend all day with him. I know nothing makes him more happy than having his loved ones with him. We're hoping he will be extubated soon and start the recovery game. We are just so thankful he made it through and had the best surgeon take care of him.