1 Day After Surgery

 Do you know the odds of surviving a widowmaker heart attack? If you have one outside the hospital, it’s 12%. While in the hospital, it’s 25%. We are convinced that if he had been 5 minutes later getting to the ER, we would be in a very different situation right now. 

While waiting during surgery, we still found ways to laugh. When the doctor of VERY few words said, “He's doing okay” it was like a weight was lifted. We weren't out of the woods yet, but the light on the other side was much brighter. 

The nurse we met who was taking care of him for the night was amazing. Although almost every medical staff we have seen has been simply amazing. 

He is breathing on his own, after being intubated for surgery, and the balloon pump has been removed. He will be sitting up later this afternoon for the first time since Thursday night. He is looking forward to it, since his back is hurting again. Same spot as usual. We have yet to figure out how his back pain will be moving forward. Were the heart and back two separate issues entirely? Was there overlap? Maybe there is back pain, but when he exerted himself the artery caused pain in the same area of the back? But, TMI warning, cracking your rib cage open for surgery and being stuck in bed on your back normally causes pain. Time will tell. 

Jim is in pretty good spirits right now. Thankful to be alive, grateful to the doctors, surgeon, and medical teams. Depression is a very real thing that many patients experience after this. We are aware, so we'll watch for signs. So please pray about that. 

His glucose has been elevated, but we learned that is basically normal. When the body goes through trauma like major surgery, glucose is elevated. They're checking it every hour and giving insulin to adjust it. The numbers should be adjusting back to normal over the next few days, so he will be back on track with managing his diabetes. 

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