(no subject)
This has been just about the longest day ever. I'm so glad it's over. And with good results.
But....
We had to be at the hospital at 8am. We were actually happy about this, because it seemed a lot better than the original 5:45. And the admitting nurse said Matt was going to be one of the first surgeries, so he should get in pretty quickly.
Ha.
We sat around. And waited. And waited. I made a tea run, and Matt's brothers ate breakfast at the cafeteria. And waited some more. Finally, around noon, the transport people came and took Matt off to pre-op. I went and got lunch, then came back and found Matt's brothers still waiting in the same place. A few minutes later someone took us to the official cardiac surgerywaiting area. Finally.
The good news was, they had someone whose job it was to keep families updated on the surgery. The bad news was, we didn't see her very often. The afternoon went like this:
12:53: Matt's asleep. The communicator says it'll be about an hour before they're ready to make the first incision.
2:20: They actually make the first incision.
3:08: He goes on the heart-lung bypass machine. The surgeon had told us this usually lasts about 40 minutes. The communicator said about an hour.
4:50: Another communicator calls to check our status, because the original one went off duty. I say, what on earth is going on? She says, oh, it looks like he just came off of bypass. Yes, after an hour and forty minutes. She says someone will be there shortly to take us to the ICU where the surgeon will talk to us.
6:00: Someone actually takes us to talk to the surgeon.
Ten hours of waiting total. I wasn't really worried--there was an excellent chance that everything would be fine. But it was still an awfully long day of waiting and wondering what was happening.
By the time we saw the surgeon, Matt was already in the ICU room. The surgeon said that everything went perfectly. I bit my tongue and didn't ask, "Then why the hell did it take so long?" Matt's brother H, who's a doctor, asked a bunch of questions that I didn't understand, but he seemed happy with the answers. We stopped in to see Matt, who was awake, sort of, and capable of making conversation, sort of, although he said later that he didn't remember that visit at all.
Matt's brothers and I then took a dinner break, then came back and found Matt a little more lucid. P, the youngest brother, took off after that--he has an early morning flight out of the Twin Cities, so he's staying up there tonight. H and I hung around for a while. Around 8:30 I stopped in to see Matt and tell him that I was going back to the hotel before I collapsed. To my surprise, he was sitting in a chair. The nurse said he was doing really well. They were planning on moving him to a regular ward tonight, assuming there was a room available.
So Matt is doing great, although he's already complaining about the chest tubes, which will probably be in until Friday, maybe Saturday. I'm back at the hotel; I'm going to watch White Collar (finally!) and crash. Matt is supposed to be released from the hospital on Saturday, then we'll stay here to see the surgeon on Monday, then we'll drive home.
I am *so* glad today is over.
But....
We had to be at the hospital at 8am. We were actually happy about this, because it seemed a lot better than the original 5:45. And the admitting nurse said Matt was going to be one of the first surgeries, so he should get in pretty quickly.
Ha.
We sat around. And waited. And waited. I made a tea run, and Matt's brothers ate breakfast at the cafeteria. And waited some more. Finally, around noon, the transport people came and took Matt off to pre-op. I went and got lunch, then came back and found Matt's brothers still waiting in the same place. A few minutes later someone took us to the official cardiac surgerywaiting area. Finally.
The good news was, they had someone whose job it was to keep families updated on the surgery. The bad news was, we didn't see her very often. The afternoon went like this:
12:53: Matt's asleep. The communicator says it'll be about an hour before they're ready to make the first incision.
2:20: They actually make the first incision.
3:08: He goes on the heart-lung bypass machine. The surgeon had told us this usually lasts about 40 minutes. The communicator said about an hour.
4:50: Another communicator calls to check our status, because the original one went off duty. I say, what on earth is going on? She says, oh, it looks like he just came off of bypass. Yes, after an hour and forty minutes. She says someone will be there shortly to take us to the ICU where the surgeon will talk to us.
6:00: Someone actually takes us to talk to the surgeon.
Ten hours of waiting total. I wasn't really worried--there was an excellent chance that everything would be fine. But it was still an awfully long day of waiting and wondering what was happening.
By the time we saw the surgeon, Matt was already in the ICU room. The surgeon said that everything went perfectly. I bit my tongue and didn't ask, "Then why the hell did it take so long?" Matt's brother H, who's a doctor, asked a bunch of questions that I didn't understand, but he seemed happy with the answers. We stopped in to see Matt, who was awake, sort of, and capable of making conversation, sort of, although he said later that he didn't remember that visit at all.
Matt's brothers and I then took a dinner break, then came back and found Matt a little more lucid. P, the youngest brother, took off after that--he has an early morning flight out of the Twin Cities, so he's staying up there tonight. H and I hung around for a while. Around 8:30 I stopped in to see Matt and tell him that I was going back to the hotel before I collapsed. To my surprise, he was sitting in a chair. The nurse said he was doing really well. They were planning on moving him to a regular ward tonight, assuming there was a room available.
So Matt is doing great, although he's already complaining about the chest tubes, which will probably be in until Friday, maybe Saturday. I'm back at the hotel; I'm going to watch White Collar (finally!) and crash. Matt is supposed to be released from the hospital on Saturday, then we'll stay here to see the surgeon on Monday, then we'll drive home.
I am *so* glad today is over.