Dad’s Surgery Went Well

Another quick update, which I tried to write last night, but the wireless internet at the hotel was acting wonky, so I never got to do the post.

Dad came through the surgery fine. They fractured his sternum when they cut it and used the spreaders–so he has extra wire to hold it together, and that will hurt even more than normal. He apparently woke up yesterday after the surgery, but when we were there, he wasn’t awake.

This morning, when Morganna and I went to see him, he was awake, and in considerable pain–which is not at all surprising. He was worried about his right hand–it tingled and was numb, but it was most likely because of the amount of fluid built up in it–he has no signs of having had a stroke during surgery–everything else on that side of his body works fine. He is lucid, and has lost none of his black sense of humor and irony.

Right after we left, the nurse took out the central chest tube–the one that was draining the area around his heart. This is good, because it will allow him to breathe more easily. The nurse also said that he is probably going to be moved from ICU today or tomorrow, which is excellent.

He told the surgeon that he had killed him, and Dr. Khan just laughed.

Later today, he was up in a chair, and even stood up briefly–with each hour, his color improves and he gets stronger.

I think that once Dad starts to really heal, he will feel much better, because he won’t have to worry about having a heart attack or stroke constantly.

Four of the six cookbooks I ordered for healthful cooking to give to Mom and Dad came today. Two more are coming next week, so they will be stocked up on ideas for good meals. It looks like I need to go through their cupboards and get rid of the crap they’ve been eating. Both of them are borderline diabetic, so they need to stop eating so much refined flour and sugar, in addition to all of the processed foods and transfats.

That should be fun.

16 Comments

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  1. Glad to hear things went so well! Here’s to a fast recovery for him.

    Comment by Cindy — February 5, 2008 #

  2. So glad his operation went well.

    Comment by vimmi — February 5, 2008 #

  3. Please give your dad my best wishes for a speedy recovery.
    Thinking of you.

    Comment by sam — February 5, 2008 #

  4. I’m really glad the surgery went well.

    Comment by renae — February 5, 2008 #

  5. All the best to your father and your family during this difficult time!

    My dad had the same surgery about 12 years ago and it was a hard for everyone. His lungs collapsed after the operation and a week later he had a mild heart attack, but he still made it and is now healthier than ever. I’m a bit sad that you said your dad was in considerable pain. Over here (Adelaide, Australia), the policy was to keep the patient relatively pain free during the whole recovery as it’s less strain on the person and they heal faster. Ask them to give your dad a bit more morphine.

    Comment by Nicole — February 6, 2008 #

  6. I’ll bet you anything that patients with humor have better recovery rates than average.

    My FIL had brain surgery for cancer. Spouse and I went there for the event. We bought him a smiley face balloon and magic-markered in a dotted line along the scalp with the annotation “Cut here.” He loved it. When he was groggy and being moved from room 1 to room 2, he held tight to that one thing.

    Nice idea, for you to clear out and restock your parents’ kitchen. That’ll give them a good start and ideas of what to buy next time.

    Comment by Harry — February 6, 2008 #

  7. I’m so glad he came through OK. I’ve been thinking of him a lot this week. I’m sure once he gets out of the hospital and can starting moving around a bit he will start to feel better, although recovery will be a long process.

    Comment by Diane — February 6, 2008 #

  8. I’m very glad to hear that everything went well with your dad. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when your Mom sees the Healthy Cookbooks. She strikes me as a “Two-parts butter” kind of country cook.

    Always the Quest.
    -Thomas

    Comment by Thomas — February 6, 2008 #

  9. I’m so glad the surgery went well. I’d love to know what cookbooks you’d recommend for healthful cooking. (My apologies if I missed a mention of titles earlier!)

    Adjusting eating habits is a challenging process…

    Comment by Sue — February 6, 2008 #

  10. I’m so glad he’s doing well, it certainly sounds like a challenging procedure and recovery, and I agree with Harry, your Dad’s humor will likely serve him well.

    Best wishes to you all. Thanks for the update, I’ve been thinking about you.

    Comment by Kristi — February 6, 2008 #

  11. All the best to your Dad!

    Could you share how introducing healthy cooking goes with your parents? I am in a similar situation and it’s HARD!

    Stephx

    Comment by Steph in the UK — February 6, 2008 #

  12. Anyone who is part of that “cow” story has the humor and attitude in life to make it through surgery. Glad to hear all is going well.

    Comment by Maureen — February 6, 2008 #

  13. Yea! I’m so glad everything went ok. I’m going to ditto Maureen–what’s a surgery compared to that cow? 🙂

    Comment by Laura — February 7, 2008 #

  14. So glad to hear your Dad’s surgery went well. 🙂

    Comment by Christina — February 7, 2008 #

  15. I’m glad to see your father’s doing well. Good luck with the dietary changes! I know that from my experience with patients, the conversation on getting someone to change their habits is far harder than anything else I have to discuss. I’m sure, however, that you are one of the most convincing people out there….. all you have to do is cook something (anything) and the smells will win them over :).

    Comment by Alexis E — February 7, 2008 #

  16. I’m so glad the surgery went well! I hope you Dad continues to make great progress. Seriously ill parents threaten to make the bottom drop out of one’s world, as I realized recently.

    Comment by ushma — February 8, 2008 #

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