Surgery Day: Update

745pm Update:

We got to go back and see Maw for a few brief moments. I'll be honest, it was really hard seeing her in that condition, although I was expecting it - as much as I could.

She continues to be on the ventilator and has tubes everywhere. She is on medication to ELEVATE her very, very low blood pressure and is also on an external pacemaker. Our understanding is that without these two things she would have no blood pressure or heart rhythm.

The nursing shift is changing now and the new nurse will begin weaning her off sedation within the hour. With that, they will also begin trying to wean her off the ventilator. However, as the doctor said previously, her accelerated lung disease (due to many, many years of smoking) is a big factor in how well she will respond to the decreased level of the vent.

Visiting hours end at 9pm EST and at that time we will be asked to leave the ICU and we cannot return until 9am tomorrow morning. We can, however, call at any time for an update.

Unless there is significant improvement or a significant decrease in her condition, I won't update again until tomorrow.

Thank you all so much for your prayers. Right now we are just praying for her to be strong enough to be weaned from sedation so that her body can begin to regulate itself. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers so very much.


2:00 Update:

The OR called out and said that they would let us know when the bypass portion was finished. We're not sure, but we think that means that they've finished the open heart part of the surgery.

Hopefully, the next update will be that she is in recovery!

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8:30am Update:

We just got an update from the OR that surgery began about 5 minutes before 8:00am. 8ish hours to go.

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Original Post:

Today is surgery day for Hazel. Please be in prayer for her body, the surgeons, the doctors, hospital staff and our family.

It will prove to be a long day, I'm sure.

I have a twitter account that I will be updating where you can check for brief updates. Click here to visit that site.

Also, we will try to update this blog as much as possible. However, we are unsure of internet access at the hospital.

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.

- Jessica