Home, Hoarse, and Healing

Paul came home on Thursday after two surgeries, one Monday and one Wednesday. I wrote e-mails to those who had inquired and to the boards of Paul's ministry. I used this title as the subject in the e-mails. I thought the alliterated subject line was clever. But, that's just me. =)

The whole experience was very positive. Mistakenly, we thought these surgeries might be more minor surgery than major surgery. Wrong! The first surgery was so major, I wasn't sure it was smart to do a second one two days later. But it was done and the second one was not so major.

We discovered that the anesthesiologist had been a member of our son's church and actually knew who we were. He didn't discover that until they were in surgery. Paul and he had a good talk between surgeries. The physician's assistant, Annette, plays the orchestra in a church where our nephew is a member and is a former staff member. She knew him. Such a small world.

The doctors were great. The care was exceptional, and we made some new friends including a nurse's aide who is on the OU baseball team. We'll probably go watch him play next season. How fun is that?

Also enjoyable was the waiting room experience. I learned how to play Crazy 8's with Dara, my granddaughter. (She insists she's my favorite granddaughter. I continue to tell her that yes she is, she is one of my six favorite granddaughters. =) All the kids were there and it was fun visiting and catching up. My brother stayed up there the whole time Monday and Wednesday, and Wednesday was his birthday. Imagine! Spending your birthday in a hospital waiting room. Very special!!

I learned lots of new information, mostly trivia. I do think I'm an information junkie. I learned that the operated-on arteries are sewn up with a cow's pericardiem patch. Isn't that interesting? I also learned that the risk of these carotid arteries clogging up again is very low. Usually they don't.

Wouldn't you think that a better blood flow through the carotid arteries would make you able to think better? We asked the doctor that, and he chuckled and said no but that a lot of people think it does. He said it's just a preventative measure to reduce the risk of stroke.

We're home and Paul is hoarse, but improving. He had the breathing tube inserted twice, and that made him hoarse. His throat is swollen on both sides where the incisions are and underneath in the middle under his chin. Another trivia note: after surgery the area under the chin fills up with fluid, which is a natural result from the surgery. The PA warned us and said that is natural and will go away on its own.

You can imagine how he looks. Both sides of his neck swollen from the incisions, and swollen with fluid under his chin. Really, he doesn't look that bad, but he thinks he does.

All is well, and we're glad last week is over. Paul thinks he'll be back to almost normal in a couple of days. We'll see.
MB