Husband Update

For all those that follow my blog and I may not have your email:

I know several of you have wrote, called, facebooked, texted, etc. Michael and I appreciate all the thoughts, prayers, and kind words from all of you. Mike's mom is hanging with him at the hospital and giving me the opportunity to go home and shower and get refreshed so I thought I would take some time to give you all a more detailed up date then the short facebook updates and text messages.

First things first, The surgeon was able to repair Michael's mitral valve of his heart as hoped for and prayed for. The surgeon was also able to do a pulmonary vein isolation which is supposed to help with the arrhythmia that Michael often feels from his irregular heart beat. The doctor had also hoped to repair his aorta but it took so long to repair the valve, the surgeon was unable to. However, that was not necessary at this time, it was just that he was going to fix it while he was already in there kind of deal.

Since then, the one thing we don't seem to have any concerns with is the heart. Dr. Dewan, the heart surgeon, has come and seen him several times and he keeps saying that everything sounds good. Dr. Kessler, another cardiologist who Michael has history with, has also came and seen him and he too believes Michael's heart is doing just fine. They started him back on his flecanide medication, one that Michael has taken for years, to watch out for the arrhythmia to make sure everything is ok. Apparently some time last night, Michael did have some arrhythmia with his heart for the first time post surgery, but it was small and must not have been that bad because Michael never noticed and never said anything about it. Dr. Kessler said that was normal and we still needed to give the flecanide more time to work.

Every since Michael came out of surgery, we have been monitoring his blood pressure. It has been really low and is still somewhat of a concern. Since yesterday afternoon it is steadily a little higher but still not where it should be. Every now and then though, we will get a read on it and it will be a really good blood pressure rate. So, there's hope it is going back up. We just need it to get up and stay up.

Another thing we have been dealing with is Mike's bladder. His catheter was taken out yesterday afternoon because he seemed to be putting out enough fluids. Since then, he has not been able to urinate on his own for some reason. Last night around midnight, the nurse had to put in a temporary catheter where they put it in, drain his bladder, and then pull it back out. They also did some tests to try and figure out what is going on. It seems that his kidneys are functioning great and his bladder is filling like it is supposed to. Right now, his bladder is just not working well enough and making him urinate like he is supposed to. We are waiting for Dr. Dewan to come assess him and he may tell them to give Michael a dieretic medicine that will hopefully help him be able to go to the bathroom on his own again. Worst case scenario, if something doesn't start working right soon, he may have to get the real catheter put back in. We pray that does not have to happen. Michael is really frustrated and upset by that and for him the catheter causes a lot of pain. So as silly as this sounds, pray that the boy can pee on his own!! :-)

After a rough night dealing with the catheter issue, Michael is feeling really weak and nauseated. They took his temperature this morning and it is at 100.2 degrees. Dr. Kessler came in and he believes that the fever is not caused by an infection (which is great) but rather caused by the fact that his lungs may be trying to collapse (obviously, not so great). He has a breathing thing that he is supposed to be doing 10 breath things every 2 hours. We decided his lungs are not going to collapse and he is going to fight off his fever so we are making him do the breath thing 3 times every 15 minutes. We really want him to make his heart and lungs work so that it makes them both stronger. (PS: I don't remember the medical term for "the breathing thing" I am referring to. Basically he blows air in to this tube, holds his breath for 5 seconds, and then releases the air. This causes him to take really deep breaths, forcing his lungs to work and expand like they are supposed to. The reason for this is because during the surgery, they collapse his lungs in order to work on his heart.)

Today they were supposed to make Michael get out of bed and walk around the unit but due to the low blood pressure they aren't going to. We really need his blood pressure up. If it doesn't come up, he can't get up and walk around, which in turn won't make his heart work and get stronger like we want.

Mike is still in the critical care unit at the hospital. He can have visitors, I just ask that you call or text me first so that he is not bombarded with visitors at one time. Thank you all for your support during this tough time in our lives.