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DH Update
I apologize in advance if this gets entirely too long....which it probably will.
So, the surgery went amazingly well. I have to say that the University of Maryland Medical Center and their staff is unbelievable. On Thursday, during the surgery, they have all of the families of surgical patients in their 'healing garden'. It's like a big atrium with trees and benches, tables, chairs...and they even had a harpest come play for a little while. They provided snacks, coffee, word searchs/crossword puzzles. All of that was just amazing to me. Throughout the day Thursday, the doctors came out to update us on the progress and let us know how DH was doing. We must have seen them 3-4 times. Each time, with good news. The surgery lasted about 9.5 hours and then they had to move him up to the ICU. For peace of mind, I had to see him before we left. Having gotten there at 7am that morning, we didn't leave until 10 at night, I was exhausted. But I got to kiss his forehead and let him 'sleep'. Then....comes the hard to impossible part.
They told us that he would be sedated for at least another day. I thought they'd 'wake him up' on Friday afternoon or so. Not so much. He stayed sedated until Sunday morning. Friday and Saturday had to have been the hardest days for me. I just wanted to talk to him and see how he was. He was still connected to all of these tubes and everything - it was really rough to see. According to all of the doctors, he was doing well and everything was going according to plan. That gave me a little comfort, but I was still a wreck. So we spent Friday and Saturday back in the healing garden just to be there and would go 'talk' to him throughout the day.
Luckily, they were able to bring him out of sedation on Sunday and remove the breathing tube. WOOHOO! He didn't really know what day it was or where he was when they woke him up but he was alert and kinda able to talk. We watched the Ravens game in his ICU room and you could hear throughout the hospital - in the hallways - when the Ravens did really well or really bad. It was rather entertaining. As Monday went on, I could tell DH was getting more and more uncomfortable. He was hooked up to ALL of these tubes and monitors. The feeding tube was probably the worst for him. They kept telling us all day that they would move him to a regular room as soon as something was available. In the ICU, visitors have to leave between 6:30-8:30 for the nurses to do their reports and shift change. DH wanted me to stay the night so I went home, gathered myself and went back. Turns out, they moved him right after we left the first time. And in his regular room, visiting hours end at 8:30. SO....I had to turn around and go home. But I took SO much comfort seeing him again in a room - he looked a lot happier, the feeding tube fell out (a blessing in disguise) and he was a lot more relaxed. Way less stressful out of the ICU.
Yesterday, the PT came though to get him out of bed and have him try to walk. He did AWESOME with it. He had to use a walker and get really tired after a while. But it was great. And the Speech and Swallow Therapist (yes, that's her title) was great too. She was able to determine that he could have water through a straw and start a liquid diet. He had a little ice cream, yogurt, and pudding yesterday. He really just wanted water and gatorade. His progress from Monday to Tuesday has been astounding. He can talk, but it's a little difficult to understand because of the swelling. And yesterday, the doctors said that he could probably come home Thursday or Friday. YAY!! I'm just nervous to have Jackson around him since he's still very much a puppy - but we'll figure it out.
All in all, I have been a zombie the last few days, and probably wouldn't have been able to get through some days without my mom and the constant texts from friends. Never underestimate your friends and the power of text messages.
If you've made it this far - I applaud you. Thank you for your prayers, thoughts, and nestie dust. I sincerely believe it works. We still have a long road ahead, but I think the really rough part is coming to and end.
Re: DH Update
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I am so glad he is doing well. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.. the surgery is over and now it's onto recovery!
Here is lots of "get well really fast" vibes coming his way!
DE IVF #1= 04/11 - BFP
Hello, DH. My name is Anne Haddad, and I edit the online and print publications for the University of Maryland Medical Center.
I came across your post from 2009 and wondered if you'd be interested telling me more and how things have gone since then. If you would agree, we could put a link in our blog to this post.
I hope all has gone well since you originally posted this.
Best,
Anne Haddad
ahaddad@umm.edu
Oops -- I see now your username is smange10.10 and not DH. So I hope DH is doing well. Please see my message from a few minutes ago.
cheers,
Anne
And another goof -- I thought you posted this in 2009, but I see that it was just this month. You can tell that I'm new to this online community, maybe?
Anne