February 4, Surgery

Well, we are well into the surgery stay by now and David had just asked me if I was keeping a journal and I hadn't been. I will write down some things now just so David and I can remember all the names of the people that cared and supported us, those on the hospital staff at St. Thomas, as well as our friends and families. Someday in the future, I hope we will be in a very different place from this room in ICU, and we'll look back and reflect on this time in the hospital, and by knowing a period of pain and suffering in our past, will be able to hold on to healthy days with renewed appreciation and gratitude.

I'll start with our preparation for surgery. Knowing David would not have solid food for quite sometime, he had a bit of a bucket list of things he wanted to eat. We were to travel to the Inn at St. Thomas on Wednesday February 3rd and needed to fast that day so we made Monday and Tuesday special. Monday night after my Zumba class, I met David at the Veranda and we were both pleasantly surprised by the food. Lovely place. The owners are Greek, not Italian, which explains my perfectly seasoned Greek salad! David had his favorite chicken parmesan and seemed pretty happy with the results. They let us bring in a bottle of wine. Nice evening.
Tuesday night we picked up steaks from EW which were surprisingly good thanks to David's great grilling techniques. We had a special bottle of Rombauer that we had ordered through the mail (thank you TN for finally passing that law). This was our "last supper" (as we jokingly called it).

The next day was Wednesday and the fasting period started. I did this with David in solidarity which he thought was silly, but was easy for me. I have fasted off and on for days in the past and David had never done it. The last thing I wanted to do was eat in front of him. We drove on up to Nashville and got all checked into the lodge and bought him some new pjs along the way just in case he needed them in the hospital.

Wednesday night was a little rough with preop procedures in place and trying to get David's stomach completely empty. The regimen consisted of Mirolax, 64 oz of Gatorade and other fun stuff. In the meantime, Micah picked up Claire from the airport and brought her to St Thomas where we had reserved her a room. Claire and I managed to have a cup of coffee bought from a vending machine in the hospital and caught up a bit.

Next morning we are up at 4:30am to get cleaned up and ready to be picked up for surgery. David had a special anti bacterial soap to use and we got him all prepped. They came to the room on the dot at 6 am and picked him up to take him to surgery. That was rough for both of us I must say. David couldn't even keep on his wedding ring. He took it off and handed it to me and then they wheeled him away and I was just left standing there. I felt a true emptiness without him near me and I was helpless as was he. At that point, you must let go and put your trust into the care of those at St. Thomas. That was our choice and we made that decision carefully. Now we had to hope it was the right one. We are not praying people so I put my positive energy into those in which David would shortly come in contact and I held onto the complete love and connection I have to David. I was sending as much strength with him as I could.

From there, I loaded up the car from the room at the Inn since I couldn't find out what hospital room we would be in yet. Starbucks opened at 6:30 am and I was first in line for coffee. I sat in the Family Waiting Room and waited for them to open at 7am. There, you sign in and they give you a cell phone. An assistant called me twice during David's surgery. The first time she called at 8:45 am and said they had been cutting for 15 minutes and his vitals were good. Claire came in and then Ginny and Aunt Myra. Helen was next. Then Jerald Ogg shortly followed by Jane who was tending to her parents in Vanderbilt Hospital. Charlie and Dorinda came soon after and we all just settled in to the wait. The assistant called again about 11 am and said the esophagus was out and they were about to attach the stomach to the top remaining portion of the esophagus. Then they had to sew and clean everything up. She said she would call again, but the next time I got news it was from the front desk and they called me up there about 12:30 and Dr. Wudel was standing there to greet me. He came over and addressed the entire family. What a guy! He said David had done well and I hugged him, but he said that only half the battle was over. The remaining challenge would be getting him through the next week. Now (Sunday), I can see what he meant.

Myra, Ginny, and Helen helped me move my things from the car up to room 789. Charlie and Dorinda took Claire to the airport. She had changed her flight because a very large snow fall was coming towards D.C. and she needed to get home. She was torn poor thing. It ended up being the right call as D.C. is completely bombed with snow now. Cile and Lauren showed up as we were headed upstairs and they helped me carry stuff up and Myra and Ginny left.
I got everything in the room as David wasn't in there yet. Cile and Lauren left and Helen went down to the waiting room again so that I would be there alone when David was wheeled in.

He came in about 10 minutes later and had so many hoses and chords coming out of him I could hardly believe it. Still, I was expecting this and all was well. Dr. Wudel (does all the upper parts...esophagus and such) and Dr. Richard Geer :>) (does all the stomach and lower bits) came in to check on David and were very positive. They told us David would need to get up and walk the next day, but to rest on day 1. I stayed in the room with him and all was well for day 1.
Susan was our nurse that day and Arlene (lovely Filipino girl) our nurse through the night. I spent most of the evening try to find a way to communicate to family that he was ok. We had prepared contact lists before hand in my Mac Mail program, but it would not work at all in the hospital. I finally found a way to copy and paste everything into Entourage which did work some. I got work out. My I phone also didn't work consistently in there so I had about 200 texts and 25 phone messages at least. I was overwhelmed with not only trying to correspond, but not even being able to connect when I did try to respond. It was not a good time for technology and everyone only wanted to know he was ok. This was rough for me the first night. After that, I was able to tell people that it was VERY difficult to email, call, or text and things slowed down some. It was much easier to write a mass email and then go to the visitors waiting room (where I could send Entourage messages) rather than retype and send each person a message. I did try to call and text specific family and loved ones of course, but I had never realized how many people love us. It was so amazing to see how many people cared. We are truly lucky.

Day 2 (Friday February 5) - Sherry, who was a slightly rougher yet pleasant woman, came in for some unpleasant maintenance. Then, David had to get all those chords and cables untangled so that we could walk. He had a three different tubes collecting different fluids, a hose going down his neck to his stomach, on top of IV chords and an epidural in his back for pain. It seemed impossible, but we got him up and on a walker. He went halfway down the hall and back. What a trooper. Back in bed after that for rest. I thought things were going great. I had called Charlie to ask for a bar of soap and razor. He and Dorinda showed up with LOTS more than that as I hadn't thought to explain there was no room in the tiny room for any more things. They were just showing that they cared so I visited for a bit and thanked them. They helped me up the elevator and I grabbed everything to get to the room by myself (as David did not want anyone to see him). I started down the hall for his room (this was the first time I had left him since we had first arrived in the room) and there was a lot of activity in the hall. I then realized they were all rushing in and out of our room 789. I was instantly fearful as he had been perfectly fine and awaiting another breathing treatment just 30 minutes prior. They said his heart had become irregular and was above 200. We had such great care until then and suddently it all changed. Not because his heart was irregular, but because you could see they were all very concerned and trying to help, but they didn't know what to do. They brought in machines that were the wrong ones or didn't work and piddled around trying to call the pharmacy for approval of various drugs. They brought in the wrong chords to go into a heart monitor. The head nurse Linda came in and appeared to have no more skill than me in knowing what to connect or what to do to monitor his heart. She inspired nothing but more fear in me. I was relieved when they said they were taking him to ICU because the team of Frick and Frack was just awful. David was telling me to remember exactly what was going on as he thought they had given him to much Abuterol during his breathing treatment - the heart problem started right after and to make matters a little worse, it was a student, Crystal, that had administered the treatment under the supervision of Ammie (ultimately I don't think she had anything to do with what happened).


They took him away and again, I am left standing there, now with even more stuff than before with the recent delivery of goodies from my brother. Also, some flowers had come. They told me I couldn't have things with David in ICU and that I might not be able to stay with him so I would have to get everything to my car!!! I thought I would just get a room at the Lodge connected to St. Thomas for families of patients (David had wanted me to do that all along, but I had refused). I called Charlie and asked him to come back. In the meantime, a nice girl named Sara who was a Chaplin? there I believe, and a nurses assistant, grabbed a cart and helped me carry everything in the room, suitcases, flowers, photos, cooler, and all, over to the Lodge. Sara even called ahead to make sure they had a room. They helped me unload and Sara waited for me to show me how to get to ICU and she walked me there. I 'll never forget that the one thing she never asked was if she could pray with me. I so appreciated the fact that she helped me without trying to pressure me into prayer. Lovely person.

I went up to J39 in ICU and checked on David then went back down to get things arranged in the room and in the meantime Charlie had arrived. He did some phone business while I got my room set up, having just thrown things in there earlier. The hours in the ICU were restricted to 15 minute visits and at that time, I was still following the rules. Charlie and I had some quality visiting time just him and me for the first time in quite some while which was a pleasant distraction to the earlier trauma of the day. We walked from the Lodge back to the hospital proper and there was an older woman pushing herself in a wheelchair and just crawling along slowing pulling with her arm and feet at the same time. It would have taken her forever to get where she was going. Charlie said "May I be of help to you young lady" and he wheeled her in between some yellow caution signs like an obstacle course for a race car driver. She started smiling and looked instantly happy. Good thing he did. She was going way over to the main elevator in the hospital. It would have taken her a long long time, but she said she did it every day on her own and the distance seemed to get longer each day. This is just one of those bizarre things I wanted to jot down and share with David later so I wouldn't forget. The visit with Charlie was quick and I went back up to the next visiting time, 5:30 pm in ICU. From then, I just didn't leave and no one said anything. Michelle, our nurse in ICU for the first few hours, and then Emily the night nurse, were both very very nice. I stayed until 12:30 am or so and then David seemed to be sleeping well so I went to the Seaton Lodge to get some shut eye. I had trouble sleeping even though I was very tired. I finally went to sleep and got up and showered and went back to check in on David at 8:30am Saturday morning. The shift had changed and Judson (went by Judd) was working the day shift. David had hardly slept. It was loud in there and people were always coming into check something. He referred to all the respiratory nurses as Nazis! Substitutes for Wudel and Geer over the weekend were Russell and Le Le (spelling?). Dr. Monsourri, the cardiologist on duty, came in and was not happy with David's heartbeat which was still irregular after 24 hours of the proper medication. He wanted to give David an electric shock to reset his heart. He called Dr. Wudel for approval and then David had to sign a form. They sedated him and he reminded me of our Living Will agreement and then I had to leave. They came and got me in 15 minutes and it was over. David didn't remember a thing and his heart was as normal and calm as could be. The wonders of medicine and electricity! David was very restless, hot, bored, and thirsty the rest of the day, but all of this was an improvement to out day before. I was allowed to give him some ice chips. We got him cooled off and Emily came back on the night shift. David watch some of the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona and seemed to start napping a bit more now that he cooled off some. About 10:30 pm he felt really sleepy and wanted to say goodnight to me. I went back to the room and again, stayed awake for a long time. I watched SNL and stupid things that had no interest to me on television. I finally felt sleepy. Lights out. I start to get into a routine.

Today is Sunday February 7th. David is having a much better day today. We are still in ICU, but he is feeling better and slept a lot last night. Henry and Jane came up to visit today and after they left, David was moved to a chair. He still can't have water for a few more days, but there is talk of putting some nutrients in his J tube later today or tomorrow. We are watching the lead up to the Superbowl with the Patriots and the Colts. Charlie is coming by to visit in a while and then David and I plan on having a party with some ice chips up here in ICU. We hope to get our of ICU tomorrow with any luck and return to a room. In retrospect, some of this has almost been lucky since we have gotten the very best of care in ICU. We have Lindsey today and she is just lovely. More after our Superbowl Party!

The Superbowl is on. David is having his first meal since surgery. It's called Cal15 is appears to be some delicious brown sludge that is dripping from a bag that connects to his J Tube (which pumps into his intestinal area). He is doing well with it and while it's not the normal way of acquiring nutrients, we feel it's a step in the right direction since this is the first his system has had since Tuesday evening's last supper.

Dr. Wudel comes in Monday morning and we will know more then...