Captain Tin Man's Journey to See the Wizard

We're home and home never felt so good! Cleveland (the City and the Clinic) exceeded our expectations, but healing is better done with your own bed in the mix and not having to work around the hotel housekeeping schedule. Thanks to everyone for the amazing support we've received. We're overwhelmed by the awesomeness of those around us. Many have asked how the healing is going and what we're up to now, so hopefully this post will provide an update. I was really enjoying Amber's posts and wishfully thinking maybe she would just continue, but apparently it's my turn. I certainly have enough time in a chair to make myself useful.  I know I'm not nearly as funny as her, plus my heart was just stopped and put on ice less than two weeks ago, so no guarantees this will even make any sense. They say you can lose some cognition and affect can change being on that heart/lung bypass machine. They call it " Pump Head ". It's real...and now my new lifel...

Eric's evolution from day 4 to yesterday was pretty remarkable. I'm sure we're going to have some "bumps in the road" over the next few days, weeks and months, but so far, he's doing really well. Dr. Svensson made his rounds with his team yesterday morning. It was a about a 5 second interaction. Kinda wild that Eric spent a total of 15 awake minutes (unless you count YouTube 😉) with this person that was inside his chest repairing one of his vital organs. So of course, Eric and I went and captured a moment with Dr. Svennson before Eric was discharged. Eric's got a cool scar on the outside and a bit of hardware on the inside. The valve itself was repaired with some crazy felt type fiber, but he has 7 wires tied like a shoelace through his sternum. (I wish I would've asked for the x-ray image, but maybe we'll get a hold of it later.) He also has a bit of one pacemaker wire left in. The wires are placed within the heart during surgery and left...

Eric turned a corner this morning. He dropped the kids off at the pool. He's making laps. Pain is tolerable. He'll be discharged and we should be in our hotel room attached to the hospital by late afternoon. Hopefully his follow-up appointments will he scheduled for Monday, and we could come home to Colorado as soon as Monday night or Tuesday if all goes well over the weekend!

Eric is struggling to find that balance of getting ahead of the pain and not feeling crazy. It's so important to find the balance so he can get his "work" done, and I'm mainly talking about walking. His nurses are working really hard to figure out what's going to work for him. The wizard will make rounds tomorrow.... And it's a big deal. It's an event apparently. Eric's nurse for the night is super jazzed about having Eric as a patient, because it means she gets to hang out and listen to Dr. Svensson during his rounds. It'll be our first time seeing him since the surgery. Hoping for good sleep and no pain for Mr. Eric the rest of the night. More tomorrow.

Okay, maybe not 100, but there have been about 15 different health care professionals in this room in the past 5 hours. Yeah, I know, this is to be expected. This is textbook for hospital care. I just wish these 15 different people worked more as a unit and less individually. I didn't get this feeling until reaching this point in Eric's aftercare. Still, I can't come down too hard on them, because we both know that the overall care here really is exceptional. Eric had a reiki session, which included some massage and aromatherapy. Visual therapy will probably be the 101st to come in next! (No joke!) But of course, the occupational therapist that came in after the reiki nurse, poo-pooed the idea of reiki. Eric's indifferent really, but is willing to try whatever to feel better. It's just interesting to watch all these health care professionals tip toe around each while posturing at the same time. There's talk of discharging Eric tomorrow. Open-heart surgery ...

Eric had the wires in his chest pulled out. (I guess he still had some tubes and wires in.) That was ouchy! But, now he can shower later on today, so it was worth it! Physical therapy was in and had a session. Shortly followed by a consult with the exercise and physiology doctor. The daily x-ray trip and a very chatty housekeeper! Plus a long walk around the unit.

Eric had a pretty good night sleep wise. His potassium dropped significantly, so now that is in the mix with all his meds. Today will be more of getting him up and moving.

I got M&M on their way back to Colorado. They will be in the care of my parents until Eric and I get home a week from now. Thank you to them! Eric is doing better. He's tube free and has been up a few times today. He's mostly just uncomfortable.... Sweaty (typical and no fever), nauseous, experiencing some vision patchiness and fuzziness and experiencing some pain. I'm passing along all the well wishes. He has his phone, but looking at it makes him feel crazy. He'll get there....until then, you might have to put up with my silly posts.

Eric will have a busy, and probably exhausting day. It's time to get up and get moving. The last tubes (besides the IVs) will all be out this morning. A doctor from Dr. Svensson's team said that day 3 is the toughest, but it should be smooth sailing ahead. She is adjusting Eric's IV meds to hopefully get his pain managed but minimize the loopiness. The rest of the team will be assessing Eric later this morning. The girls are heading back to Colorado today. They are worn out, especially from the added bonus of getting to deal with head lice. All three of us girls are in the clear and now we just have to follow a regiment for the next three weeks to make double sure. Fun! After seeing their plane off, I'll head back and focus on Eric. Our added situation yesterday, left me not getting to be with him as much as I would've liked. More to come.....

Eric's resting pretty comfortably in his step-down unit room. He's the first room in the unit, but it's pretty quiet. He is one by one getting tubes removed, and that's helping with his comfort. He's still experiencing some pain, but they are doing all they can to manage it. He had some soup and ice cream, and is hydrating well.  The girls and I watched fireworks from his room while Eric snoozed away.

Central line is out. One chest tube is out (one to go). The nurse said he's doing great. We've been doing the lice treatment for 3 hours, and probably have 2 hours to go. We're anxious to see him! He's in J6-3 bed 1 of Cleveland Clinic.

The girls and I are in the middle of our treatments in our hotel room. Just happy that we can start to tackle this problem that apparently we brought with us from Colorado. Yeah, we're those people! I spoke with Eric's ICU nurse and it seems like he will move out of the ICU this evening. Yay! His pain is managed with some additional meds and those blood gases are leveling out too. They are going to remove one of the two chest tubes, as well as the central line in his neck before being moved out of the ICU. We're all hopeful that this will make him feel more comfortable and not feel as much pain on his right side. Eric will be in the step-down unit for three to five days or more. More to come!

Eric had an okay night. Still fighting to keep those blood gases normal. In order to try to get those where they need to be, they have to back off the pain meds. He's in quite a bit of pain and it hurts to breathe. He's also struggling to keep himself constantly breathing through the nasal cannula, because it feels better to take breaths in through his mouth. He's fighting some air bubbles too, but hopefully if we get him up, those will go away. Still working towards getting out of ICU. That's the goal for today. Now for my inner Bridget Jones.... With that, it's her cursing that I'm channeling...... After all three of us visited Eric in the ICU after Eric got his tube out, I took the girls back to the hotel room to get them settled. Maggie finished showering and called me to her and said, "Mom, I think I have lice." Now, I'm thinking, this is Maggie. Her sunburned scalp from last week's Rugby is probably peeling. But, @#&$! Lice it is! I...

Eric had the breathing tube taken out around 6:15 pm local time. His ICU team had the girls and I wait until 7:30 to see him. They needed to get his pain managed. (Eric told me first thing, "I got mad. I wanted that tube out!") I kinda figured that was how that would go. I think his team did too, but no one can blame him..... it's super uncomfortable.  He's all hooked up with his pain med pump now, so he's beginning to get the pain under control. We had shift change, and the ICU seems much more lively than this afternoon....probably due to all the patients running on a similar timeline as Eric. He's doing good and is mostly making sense! 😉 Eric and Maggs Tinman Heart The next goal is to leave the ICU and move into the step-down unit for the remainder of his hospital recovery. Thanks to everyone for all the positive vibes, good juju, well wishes, prayers and thoughts. We feel so supported and loved!

Eric's body temperature came back up, but they're still trying to even out his blood gas levels. So, until all those levels are where they should be, he has to stay on a vent. This is all very typical. Hopefully that tube will come out in the next few hours. They did wake him and his neurological assessment was all fine. He calmed himself though the discovery that "I have a big ol' tube' down my throat". They made him comfortable again, and has been snoozing away. I did take the girls in to see him, and they agreed, that he looks pretty much like does at home when he's napping on the couch! His color looks good. They're keeping him comfy until those blood gases come back normal and then it'll be wakey wakey.... but no bakey. Just ice chips.

I just saw Eric. He's still intubated and asleep. They are waiting for his body temperature to come back up (your body gets pretty chilly during open heart surgery and that's how they want it) before they start to wake him up and then make sure he's all good to go to get that breathing tube out. He's taking his time to warm-up, but he's pretty close. Maybe another hour or two. He looks good. Good color. Calm. They did the three inches incision, (another reason we came to Cleveland Clinic) rather than the "full zipper", but they still cut through the sternum, so he'll have pain from the get go. He has three professionals caring for him in the ICU, shared between him and one other patient. He's in good hands! I'll keep you posted.

It's 11:20 am local time, and he's out of surgery and being moved to the ICU. I can go and see him in about an hour, but for only five minutes. We'll all go back in for a longer visit once the  breathing tube comes out.

The major part of the surgery is finished. Dr. Svensson was able to do a repair rather than a replacement, which is what Eric was hoping for. Dr. Svensson said it went well. Eric will be in surgery for another hour to two hours to finish and close, before being transferred to ICU. Then another hour to get him settled before we can see him. Most likely he'll have his breathing tube until late afternoon or evening.

Just received the page that the major portion of his surgery is underway.

It was an early morning and I think he slept a bit. We had about an hour of waiting before he was brought back to be prepped. The girls and I got to visit with him for a few minutes before we said, "See you later." He was good and ready to get things rollin'. The girls and I will eat and stay close by. We'll have a little class to go to, and then we'll wait for updates and the consult with the surgeon. We'll be able to see Eric in the ICU 1-3 hours after the surgery is completed. It's 7:15am here now, so I imagine we'll have an update in two hours or so. More to come!

I'll pick up where Amber left off the other day. Remember that part about how the catheterization went really well on Thursday, with no blockages or complications? The procedure itself went great, but...apparently tequila and a shitload of tacos a few hours afterwards is no bueno. I felt really good that evening so we ventured out. I guess I had a little "episode". Had to be those damn tacos! They just must not mix well with Fentanyl, Versed, and contrast. Or maybe it had something to do with that puncture wound in my groin that was no longer numb? Needless to say, I kind of freaked everyone out. I think they were most freaked out that I would sit down on the Cleveland streets. If only I had a cup and a few starter coins I could have paid for our Uber home. Really though, I think I just pushed it a little too soon, but all is well now. We finished up all the pre-op appointments Friday. They were all non-invasive and easy. We got to meet the surgeon for th...