The Good news is I am home again and breathing much easier. Just to let you know HOW much better, let me tell you about my night in the hospital. Or rather, starting with the night before surgery, I got maybe two hours sleep. Not two consecutive hours sleep, two hours total. Everything I wanted to get done before going in was taking sooooo long. So, the night after surgery, the nurse wanted me to walk around the floof, just to demonstrate my mobility and balance, but I was so tired, after the nurse wandered off to do something, I just crawled into bed a little before nine o'clock.
Between nine and about 3 AM, nurses came in to awaken me five separate times. In the weeks prior to the surgery, many was the time I usually gave up trying to sleep around 3 AM because it was nigh impossible to lie down and breathe at the same time. The night after surgery, all five times I immediately rolled back over and went back to sleep, making it the best night's sleep I'd had in at least a month, even with the five interruptions. And when I sat up and took my first breath in the morning, my first thought was, "Wow. I didn't even have to think about that". How novel to just breathe in and breathe out without having to consider how difficult it was.
A guy could get used to this!
This is the "Saran Wrap" covering the incision on my wrist that I'm assuming they use to guide the catheters. It's not as bad as it looks. This is the same spot they went in a couple of weeks ago for the cardiac cath test I had prior to the procedure. The bruising, which happens to me often, because of the blood thinners I take, was probably enhanced by whatever damage the first test made, basically in the same vein. The "Saran Wrap" is supposed to seal in icky things like blood and seal out icky things like germs. They want me to wear it like this for another 2-3 days. The gauze pad is kind of like a mood ring. If it turns bright red, it means you've started bleeding again. If it turns a kind of sickening yellowish green, it's likely infected. Modern medicine...who knew?
It's the only vaguely SFW photo you're going to get. The other two big incisions are crouch adjacent, and probably NSFW even if I wanted to share them.
My number three son, number four child Joel gave me a lift home from the hospital. We had a nice visit. I hadn't really seen him or spoken to him much since Christmas, so that was a treat for me, catching each other up on what's been going on in the meantime.
Even though the biggest problems of the last 6-18 months has been eliminated, I did notice getting winded a little easier than usual in a couple of instances. For now, I'm going with the assumption that it's simply the atrophy of muscles mostly unused because of the breathing difficulties.
Doctor's orders are take a few days off to heal, then I start an inordinately high number of follow up visits ranging from a week to a year out from the surgery. I figure I will start a rehab exercise program starting around Monday, and I already had plans to go through another round of Keto weight loss this year.
Shorter update is, it feels good to simply move around without hyperventilating before and after every movement. I appreciate all the prayers and well wishes of my readers. You know who you are and so do I. Thank you.
The Lord has brought me safely through this procedure and it is my sincere belief that this humbling experience, a graduate class in humility, so to speak, will help shape and prepare me for some special task or ministry He is preparing me to do. Don't know what it is just yet, but I have I feeling I will require some of my newly experienced weakness and helplessness to fit me for the task.
Again, it's hard for me to convey just how much I appreciate your prayers or how much I believe they moved the King of Heaven to intervene on my behalf. When the direction of where this next act in my life becomes more clear, I will share this with you my dear ones. Until then, keep the faith! And thanks again!
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