Still Sabbath, March 30, nearly 9 pm

Two major milestones have been reached lately that I have not mentioned.  John's chest congestion is almost gone.  It was so bad at times and he wheezed and coughed and spit up phlegm and felt oxygen-deprived.  To have that gone is such a blessing.  The other huge accomplishment is that his tailbone sore is healed!  That caused him untold agony.  It's probably the most common place for a pressure sore because every time he moves, it increases the pain and the movement delays healing.  So!  Those are both MAJOR milestones.

John has had a realization today of just how life-threatening his aortic dissection was and it is very sobering to him.  I had pulled out the hand-drawn picture that the anesthesiologist made for me at Barnes Emergency Department the night we arrived there.  It is posted early on in this blog, I believe.  It was early on the morning of January 15.  The second CT scan had shown John's dissection or tear originated at the aortic root, right above the coronary arteries at the top of the heart.  Because this condition is life-threatening, the doctor was explaining to me the need for immediate emergency surgery to do an aortic resection to remove the ballooned aneurism of the aorta replacing the damaged aorta with a dacron graft.  The tear itself continued all the way along the ascending aortic arch, through the descending aortic arch and all the way down to the groin.  The tear happens when one of the inner layers of the aorta comes loose.  Blood flows behind the tear forming a flap and this blood may collect and pool and then clot.  This is what causes the diminished blood flow to major organs and can cause death.

All the major arteries flow out of the aorta, to the arms, to the brain, to the lungs, and then lower down in the abdomen to the intestines and kidneys and pancreas and liver and finally to the legs.  The CT scan showed lack of blood flow to John's kidneys, his amylase blood level was elevated showing compromise in the pancreas, too.  Showing this all to John, he realized how quickly he could have died.  All along doctors and nurses and many people have told him he is a miracle but it is just now today dawning on him just how much of a miracle he really is.

We are thankful for so many blessings.  I look at him, skinny, a bit gaunt, scarred and I marvel that he is still the man that I love.  I don't love him for his big muscles, broad shoulders, tanned body, and good looks.  It is his heart that I love and if anything, his heart is better than ever!  His mind is also precious to me and God has healed parts of THAT, too.  He can't understand all this...but he does understand the love that has come through to him from so many of his family and friends.  THAT he FEELS and it has made him a better man!