The Quest for the Rib....

Rough start to the day this morning. Joe was feeling anxious... and therefore Carrie was feeling anxious. Day started getting better when they took him down to surgery an hour early... and when the anesthesiologist was there WAITING with anti-anxiety drugs. Amazing what drugs can do. Within a minute Joe was totally relaxed and cracking jokes!

Surgery took about 2 hours and 45 minutes. They were able to go in through the top of the collar bone, rather than through his underarm. His incision is about the same length that the clot was... how ironic.

Surgeon feels that the surgery was VERY successful... he managed to get in and get the rib without injuring the lung or, as far as we can tell right now, any of the nerves running to the arm. Yeah! The other EXCELLENT news is that after seeing the vein, he has decided to CANCEL the procedure for tomorrow. The vein was still soft (scarred veins are hard) and so he would like to see how much Joe's body can do to heal and repair the vein on it's own. In 4-6 weeks, they will do an ultrasound on Joe's vein to determine if further repair is necessary. If it is, they will likely do the repair at the end of the 6 months of coumadin....

Joe is resting comfortably. He is on a LOT of drugs... morphine, Oxycontin, etc. You name it, he's getting it. He has not really eaten yet- just jello and some broth, but they think he will be ready to try some more food at breakfast. When I left the hospital he was just laying in bed, totally relaxed and pretty conked out. I think he should rest well this evening!

Here's the funny part of today... Joe is INTENT on getting his rib back so he can see it and keep it. He talked to the doctor about this yesterday and the doctor said that he didn't care- but it really wasn't up to him. Then the nurses went on a quest to help us figure out who Joe needed to talk to... ends up that he needs to sign a consent and request it from pathology. You can't actually request it from pathology before pathology has the item, so this wasn't something we could do ahead of time. I guess tomorrow we will be taking a field trip (because I can't get it for him, only he can request it) to pathology to fill out paperwork so that we can leave the hospital with Joe's rib. However, we've been warned that this is something that is often forgotten, so we needed to make a big deal out of it to every person that would be in the surgery. Picture this: here's Joe, totally anxiety ridden, unable to really communicate a lot, and his CRAZY wife, telling every doctor that we see that he would really like his rib back after they take it out PLEASE. I'm sure the doctors thought I was NUTS. There is even a big yellow post-it note on the outside of his chart telling everyone that he wants his rib back.... and of course this has led to a number of jokes from all parties. The nurses on our floor are now calling Joe "Adam". Doesn't matter to me.... if Joe wants the darn rib back, then he is going to get the darn rib back no matter what I have to do!!

So... I am sure that you are wondering, other than getting the rib... what's the next step? Joe will go back on IV heparin tomorrow morning and also begin taking the oral coumadin. He needs to stay in the hospital until the coumadin in his blood reaches the 'therapeutic' level. Then he can come off of the heparin and COME HOME!!! (I would also like it if we could get him to the point that he can stand up without passing out before we bring him home. I know... I am SO picky!)

That's all for today folks. I'll keep you updated, but I am guessing (and hoping) that the posts will be getting shorter as we finally begin the uphill climb towards recovery. Tomorrow is new drugs, PHYSICAL THERAPY, and the quest for the rib will continue.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support... looks like they are working!! :)
Have a good night...
C