Random notes…

Today is pretty hard. I need to cough to move fluids out of my lungs (and prevent pneumonia), and it’s more painful today since I’m sore from yesterday, and the pain meds don’t help as much with muscle soreness.

I’ve been having bouts of sweating and chills every 12 hours or so, usually accompanied by dizziness. They’ve taken me off the antibiotics thinking that it’s actually contributing to the problem, but the new plan is lots of walking.

I clearly over-did it yesterday, I didn’t make it 50 yards of walking today, but I probably went almost 150 yesterday (and did about 8-9 stairs). I’ll try to get some more in later today to keep up my physical activity. But at the moment the sweats are back, and I’m not cleared to try again for a while.

Plea for help…

Actually one huge request.

Send help. In it’s many shapes and sizes. I’m up and moving (barely), but even simple tasks are impossible/off limits (ex. carry a tray of food for 3 feet).

If you live in or around the DC metro area and can assist in (big) babysitting, driving service, errands, or anything at all, please let me know your availability. I can’t do this alone. Missi is cracking under the strain of trying to look like she can help (she really can’t anymore). And I’m terrified of things that never even seemed hard before (laying down incorrectly in bed could crack my sternum).

So I’m asking all of you you’ve been such good friends all these years to donate that most valuable of commodities — your own time. I can promise that none of it will be glorious, fun, or even mildly amusing, but I don’t know how else to tackle all of this.

A quick update.

Sometime around when the powers that be (and the doctors the rock) managed to keep me on this side of the shadowy veil, the server’s Internet connection when belly up. Seems like a more than fair trade. Actually, as karmic tabs go, I’m assuming I still owe on this one, and I can readily accept that.

At approximately 2:00 PM today I was transferred to the Step-Down unit (now actually housed at Weinburg 6) where cell and laptop access is allowed, and thanks to Missi delivering my gear and Piotr working with me remotely to diagnose the server Internet connection; I’m now once again able to annoy you all with my ranting.

More tomorrow.

Six, count them, Six bypasses

3:25 PM – Sandro is now out of surgery.  The doctors say that it was a very sucessful surgery.  There was no damage to his heart and he now has all new plumbing!  He is in the ICU unit, where visitors are limited.  With any luck he will be off of the ventilator by tomorrow morning.  As he recovers, I will try to post more here.

Don’t stop sending hopes and prayers, he still has a long way to go.

Small Update

10:48 AM – After pestering the staff here for information, we now know that the surgery started at 8 am.  Sandro is doing well.  The surgeon is taking his time harvesting lots of grafts.  Assuming the standard 3-5 hour surgery, we should have more news by 1 pm.

still no news

9:45 AM – For all of you waiting for news, Sandro was brought into the surgery room at 6:15 this morning. He is still in surgery and I am here patiently waiting for news. Once I hear anything I will let you all know. Thanks for your prayers.

Day 9: 18 hours to surgery

My nerves got the best of me last night and I didn’t sleep well. I got prescribed Lorazepam (Ativan) to settle my nerves. The best advice is to use the meds offered to make things somewhat easier.

I go into surgery in about 18 hours. In the mean time I have forms to fill out, various affairs to put in order, and lots of panic to ensue. Hopefully by this time tomorrow, Missi will be able to update the blog with my status (it’s likely to be up to 48 hours before I could do it myself).

Now I’m going to nap since the Lorazepam and lack of rest are making me sleepy.