January 17
John is sitting up, smiling, saying nothing ever tasted so good as the slushy apple juice early this morning. During the night, he went into atrial fibrillation as is quite common post surgery and he may come and go with that. The kidney function is the main concern and will determine when we get to go home. We have our work cut out for us: walking, coughing, spirometry....
Natasha and Jeremy left this morning since she works today. She assured us she will come back if she needs to...they have been so helpful and sweet through this. Winston will come tomorrow and then he and Karissa will leave Sabbath.
I've been "in reality" this morning...guess it is called "setting in" when it finally starts to hit you. So, lots of tears, AND determining that I don't need to do this alone. So, tomorrow my sister, Juli, will arrive. When she leaves Paula will come. Maybe we will be home by then!
Being in our own room is wonderful...quiet, dark, still lots of people in and out. John even said he slept some last night so that is good!
Thanks for all the love and prayers.
Becki
7pm It's Thursday evening, still just day 2 post surgery...lots of pain and nausea and not much courage at times for the fight ahead. Guess it is natural for that to come and go. I wasn't too courageous myself this morning...reality hits; no waking up from this nightmare.
But, what the devil meant for harm, God will use for his purpose and some day we might understand a bit of what that might be. Not today, though!
Karissa, our marvelous student nurse, has been right in here with managing pain and encouraging breathing treatments and fluids. We will so miss her when she goes on Sabbath.
Natasha and Jeremy left this morning...was it just this morning? Seems ages ago! OK, more tomorrow.
Thanks for your continued prayers...
Becki
Karissa 1/17
Sorry about me blowing up your Facebook haha but just trying to keep family/friends updated. His big chest tube came out today so that is excellent. He is still in quite a bit of pain/nausea which makes sense considering his sternum was sawed in half (cute image). Also, he has had to cough quite a bit and that hurts his incision. He is pretty weak still but just requested ice cream with his pain medication so good news ;) Natasha and Jeremy left this morning... But Winston is on his way right now which I'm so happy/relieved about. Mom and I are pretty exhausted.... I somewhat resemble a drug user ;) It's going to be quite the journey to a full recovery... Doctor says stress levels need to be dramatically decreased. So as a protective daughter... I will make sure those church members who are a little on the needy side are avoided at all costs... Hahah...but seriously :/ — with John Knobloch.
Karissa 1/17
Rough night. He went into atrial Fibrillation, a cardiac arrhythmia. 1/3 of patients who have had an aortic dissection go into this rhythm after surgery... So if he doesn't come out of it by tomorrow, they will do a cardioversion(shocking the heart back into a regular rhythm). Another thing is that his creatinine levels (which show kidney function) are high so we'd really like to see them come down. He's in good spirits, mostly, and always says "oh, I'm fine" to the nurses... And states that his pain is a 1 or 2 out of 10, even if he is grimacing. Haha. Most of my patients in the hospital always declare their pain a 9 or 10... So kind of funny.
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