DadTate's Heart Surgery

DadTate (Tom) had open heart surgery on March 28th. Long story short (or at least shortER), they replaced his coronary valve with a tissue (bovine) heart valve. They had also planned to do an additional bypass surgery but the artery was too narrow; to try and put a stent in would have caused it to completely collapse. Surgery was completed at approximately 3 pm yesterday (the 28th) but I have not been near a computer till now. He is in ICU at Mesa General Hospital.

It's been a roller-coaster ride since surgery was finished, and it will be so for another day or so at least, then he should stabilize. We expect he will be in ICU for several more days and then will be transferred to the telemetry unit for another week or so. The biggest problems so far have been renal failure and fibrillations. Also they cannot get him off the respirator (breathing machine) yet. The doctor wanted him off it by late last night but so far he has been unable to breathe on his own. He has developed acidosis as well. I'm not sure what that is but I'm told it's that his body is creating too much lactic acid as a result of the kidneys not functioning. So they are treating all those problems and tomorrow morning will try again to wean him off the breathing machine.

So the bottom line is that we are just taking it slow. It seems to be going alright, it's just taking a lot longer than we had hoped for. And that's okay. As Sherry said, "This is the man who drives 25 mph in a 40 mph zone... he still gets there, it just takes a little longer!"

All your continued prayers are most appreciated. Keep them coming. Hugs and blessings to you all from all of us.

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