surgery and recovery

Dearest Family & Friends,

Thank you so much for all your thoughts, prayers, and get well wishes. Yesterday turned out to be a lot longer day then we anticipated. We arrived at 11am with surgery scheduled for 1pm. However, I wasn't wheeled into the OR until 4:30pm. Yes, we waited most of the day. It appeared there was an emergency with the patient before me. And while we were waiting I felt the peace of all your prayers. We talked, joked around, and read until my name was called. Once my name was called I was taken to the PTU (procedure treatment unit). I waited in the PTU for about an 1.5 hours until I was taken to the OR.


The surgery itself was about 1.5 hour. Once it was over, my surgeon, Dr. Laks came to tell the family that the surgery went well and that it's expected I'd be quite sore; sore like I got hit by a car. While in recovery I had an allergic reaction to something and turned real red and broke out with hives. I was drugged up on pain killers and then they gave me loads of Benadryl. This made me even more out of it and I wasn't allowed to return to the PTU until I was coherent. I ended up being in recovery for about 2 hours.

Once I returned to the PTU I was able to see my family. I had some swelling of my neck and face. My throat is quite sore from the respirator. I had a fat lip from when the respirator was removed. My IV was literally ripped out by the nurse so I have a big bump on my hand from that. My neck is score probably from how I was positioned during surgery and I have a large bandage that can't be removed until Saturday. I walk like an old lady hunched over. My back also is killing me, likely from the OR bed. It was in PTU that I had some ice water, chocolate ice cream, and got up walking around and going to the bathroom. Just before I was released, I was given another pain killer to help me on the ride home. I was discharged 10:30pm and we arrived home at 11:30pm.

We were welcomed home by a squeeky clean house. Thanks Neil & Katherine for spending the entire day (8hours) scrubbing down our place. It smelled and looked so good. And the chocolate on the pillow was the cherry on top. Coming home to such an act of love brought me to tears. We are SO blessed to have you as our friends.

It was a rough night. I was up every 2 hours. I'm a lot more sore then I expected to be. I need help getting in and out of bed or a chair. I feel like I've done a million crunches and been hit by a truck. Today I ate just a little more. My mom and Jay helped to bathe me and wash my hair. I feel a bit better now that I'm cleaned up. I had sticky gunk and Betadine all over me. We've received a call from a nurse as well as an email from my nurse practioner with my cardiology office. Hopefully tonight we can sleep better and removing my bandage won't be too challenging tomorrow. I also will have a follow up appointment with Dr. Laks to check the wound and stitches in about a week. My grandma asked if I can tell by my heart that I have a new pacemaker, but I don't. At least not yet because of all the pain I'm experiencing.

Thank you again for all the prayers. We're sorry to get this post up so late, but know you understand with the long day we had.