Looking from the Sides: Sunday in a Hospital

We learned that things move very slowly on a Sunday in the hospital. We were hoping to see the hematologist OR the vascular surgeon today... but to no avail. Probably Monday morning...

Here is what we did learn today... the vascular surgeon will choose to either do the surgery in the next few days OR in 4-6 weeks. It is totally his decision. Right now they have no idea what the vein actually looks like or how damaged it is because it is compressed. Once they remove the rib, they will be able to determine what they will need to do for the vein. Best case- nothing. Worse case, a patch, where they cut out a section of the vein and put in a 'replacement'. They won't know until they open him up and see what is actually there. The operation is a tricky one. Every person's anatomy is different, and this is a hard area with lots of nerves etc. The recovery from this surgery is hard... similar to a mastectomy in a woman.

Good news... it is highly unlikely that he has this same syndrome on the opposite side. And even if he does have it on the left side, the likelihood that it will become symptomatic on the non-dominant side is very slim.

More good news... we were able to 'sneak' Joe out of the hospital for about 20 minutes so he could see the kids. The nurses really wanted him to see the kids, so they worked with us to get him out of the room even with all the monitors and iv's. We were given a firm time limit of 20 minutes from bed to bed (the nurse told me if we weren't back she was risking her job...). Nana and Papa brought them the kids to the hospital and I think it was GREAT for the kids to see Joe. They were very apprehensive of him at first, but warmed up quickly, and I think it reassured them that he really was okay.

I actually brought the kids home from the hospital, and we've had a good afternoon just hanging out at home. I was really missing the kids, so it was nice to have some time to just hang out and reconnect. They go back to school tomorrow. This is good in some ways, because I know that they will be busy with friends and learning all day and it will keep their mind off of everything. Challenging to go back to the routine of getting them to and from school when I am not at work. As for work- both Joe and I's supervisors have been wonderful- they just want Joe to get better and know that we both need to be focused on that for the next little while.

Joe is in better spirits today... he is feeling better- less cloudy and confused. He watched some TV today, which is a first. We also managed to take a short nap together... let me tell you those hospital beds are not very wide!

Here's a photo of everybody's favorite patient.... and no that isn't bruising on his arm, it's leftover dye from the procedures of the last few days.