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Sunday, June 29th, 2008
Transplant Surgery
I have been at the hospital all night with no sleep! My Daddy has been at Baptist Hospital since yesterday awaiting a donor kidney and prepping for surgery. These are excepts from blogs that I have been posting through the night to keep friends and family updated. I couldn't log into humzOo until I got home today....something about the site being blocked...but I wanted to share because I know some of you have been concerned......
11:30pm
My sister and I arrived at Baptist hospital today around 5:30pm because we thought that Daddy's transplant surgery would start around 7:30pm. After a delay, he went into surgery at 9:30pm. We have gotten one update so far......Surgery is going well and Daddy is doing good! Please keep my family in your prayers....most of you know what my Dad has been going through for the past year and a half and this is a blessing for us in our long journey! Lucky for me the hospital has complimentary internet access, so maybe myspace can keep me occupied for a bit :) Till next post.....
3:00AM
We just heard from the operating room about 30 minutes ago....There were some unexpected issues that came up and the surgery is going to take longer than expected. Something about the quality of veins (vascular disease) brought on by years of being a diabetic. However, the team assures us that Daddy is holding up well and hopefully they will be out of surgery soon! They told us that they should be in contact with us again in 2 hours. Once out of surgery, he will be in ICU for 2-3 days, which means that we will only see him periodically every couple of hours.
I will post more later if we only get an update, but if they finish the surgery I will put up another post prolly round mid morning! Thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers!!
4:30AM
Daddy is out of surgery. We just met with the transplant/lead surgeon. Daddy has significant vascular disease (hardening of the veins) relating to years of diabetes. This posed a serious issue in finding a place and placing the donor kidney. So serious that another transplant team surgeon was called in to assist with the surgery. Hence, causing the extra hours of surgery. The transplant surgeons informed us that Daddy is not out of the woods yet. He has some significant hurdles to get through in the next couple of days. Because his breathing has been labored, and collection of fluid on his lungs significant, he will remain on a ventalator until his body can regulate his breathing on its own. Because he is on a ventalator he will be semi unconscious (medically induced) to ease the discomfort that comes along with being intebated. He is currently being moved from surgery to ICU where he will stay for the next 2-3 days. We are hoping that they will let us in at 5AM to see him, if not we will have to wait until 9AM, which is the stupid schedule of the ICU. However, we know that one of our prayers was answered just by getting this kidney. This donor was a perfect match. The transplant/lead surgeon told us that Daddy met 6 out of 6 criteria. He further said that this was like catching lightening in a bottle. Furthermore, had we waited any longer he didn't know if they could have even done the transplant, because his vascular disease may have been too advanced.
So keep up the prayers everyone! Thanks so much!!!
Post Surgery Update
We got to go in this morning and see Daddy at 5AM. He was not doing so well, but was to be expected just out of surgery. He was in a considerable amount of pain, labored breathing, and very swollen from the IV fluids during surgery, plus agitated from the anesthesia. His condition was critical but he was holding his own. We got to stay with him for 30 minutes then had to leave due to the ICU schedule. We got to revisit him at 9AM. When we went in this time he was doing better with breathing and they have his pain under control. He also had become more relaxed as the anesthesia was wearing off. His new kidney had also began to produce 3 times what it had been at 5 this morning! His condition is still critical, but the doctors reviewed his x-rays and breathing and are currently trying to ween him from the ventilation tube (which is GREAT-we thought he would have it in longer). My Mom is still at the hospital and my sister Traci is going back tonight to stay with her.....while Sarah and Larry (good friends of my parents) stay with Mom today.
More updates to come! Thank you all so much for the prayers! Please keep praying!
I am home now and going to try and get some rest because I have had no sleep since Friday night.
Transplant Surgery
I have been at the hospital all night with no sleep! My Daddy has been at Baptist Hospital since yesterday awaiting a donor kidney and prepping for surgery. These are excepts from blogs that I have been posting through the night to keep friends and family updated. I couldn't log into humzOo until I got home today....something about the site being blocked...but I wanted to share because I know some of you have been concerned......
11:30pm
My sister and I arrived at Baptist hospital today around 5:30pm because we thought that Daddy's transplant surgery would start around 7:30pm. After a delay, he went into surgery at 9:30pm. We have gotten one update so far......Surgery is going well and Daddy is doing good! Please keep my family in your prayers....most of you know what my Dad has been going through for the past year and a half and this is a blessing for us in our long journey! Lucky for me the hospital has complimentary internet access, so maybe myspace can keep me occupied for a bit :) Till next post.....
3:00AM
We just heard from the operating room about 30 minutes ago....There were some unexpected issues that came up and the surgery is going to take longer than expected. Something about the quality of veins (vascular disease) brought on by years of being a diabetic. However, the team assures us that Daddy is holding up well and hopefully they will be out of surgery soon! They told us that they should be in contact with us again in 2 hours. Once out of surgery, he will be in ICU for 2-3 days, which means that we will only see him periodically every couple of hours.
I will post more later if we only get an update, but if they finish the surgery I will put up another post prolly round mid morning! Thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers!!
4:30AM
Daddy is out of surgery. We just met with the transplant/lead surgeon. Daddy has significant vascular disease (hardening of the veins) relating to years of diabetes. This posed a serious issue in finding a place and placing the donor kidney. So serious that another transplant team surgeon was called in to assist with the surgery. Hence, causing the extra hours of surgery. The transplant surgeons informed us that Daddy is not out of the woods yet. He has some significant hurdles to get through in the next couple of days. Because his breathing has been labored, and collection of fluid on his lungs significant, he will remain on a ventalator until his body can regulate his breathing on its own. Because he is on a ventalator he will be semi unconscious (medically induced) to ease the discomfort that comes along with being intebated. He is currently being moved from surgery to ICU where he will stay for the next 2-3 days. We are hoping that they will let us in at 5AM to see him, if not we will have to wait until 9AM, which is the stupid schedule of the ICU. However, we know that one of our prayers was answered just by getting this kidney. This donor was a perfect match. The transplant/lead surgeon told us that Daddy met 6 out of 6 criteria. He further said that this was like catching lightening in a bottle. Furthermore, had we waited any longer he didn't know if they could have even done the transplant, because his vascular disease may have been too advanced.
So keep up the prayers everyone! Thanks so much!!!
Post Surgery Update
We got to go in this morning and see Daddy at 5AM. He was not doing so well, but was to be expected just out of surgery. He was in a considerable amount of pain, labored breathing, and very swollen from the IV fluids during surgery, plus agitated from the anesthesia. His condition was critical but he was holding his own. We got to stay with him for 30 minutes then had to leave due to the ICU schedule. We got to revisit him at 9AM. When we went in this time he was doing better with breathing and they have his pain under control. He also had become more relaxed as the anesthesia was wearing off. His new kidney had also began to produce 3 times what it had been at 5 this morning! His condition is still critical, but the doctors reviewed his x-rays and breathing and are currently trying to ween him from the ventilation tube (which is GREAT-we thought he would have it in longer). My Mom is still at the hospital and my sister Traci is going back tonight to stay with her.....while Sarah and Larry (good friends of my parents) stay with Mom today.
More updates to come! Thank you all so much for the prayers! Please keep praying!
I am home now and going to try and get some rest because I have had no sleep since Friday night.
On a side note, when my dad died in 11/06, we donated his organs. Both of his kidneys are living on in 2 different people along with a variety of his other organs. Organ donation is a wonderful thing!
Keep us posted!