Ray didn't get much sleep last night because some several members of his roommate's family were on the other side of the room calling friends and other members of the family to let them know the good news: that Mr. See was expecting a set of lungs as soon as the weather cleared enough to fly the lungs to UVA. Today, though, for most of the day, only Mrs. See was there still waiting the arrival of the precious gift. Then, just after lunch, the anesthesiologist appeared to explain to the Sees what to expect, including the fact that our doctor, David Jones, would not be doing Mr. See's surgry after all, but rather that it would be done by a woman doctor who had come to UVA from another transplant team at another college; that they would replace the right lung first and then the left; that the surgery would take 10 to 12 hours; and other details intended to remove some of the fear of the unknown for the family. Then Mrs. See started helping her husband prep for his surgery, and around 3:30, a whole herd of people streamed through the door to reassure Mr. and Mrs. See that their support system was at hand. At 4:00 PM, Mr. See and his entourage disappeared down the hall toward the Operating Room. The Sees still need our thoghts and prayers. so please join Ray and me in sending positive energy to this couple. I will try to find out tomorrow how things went for the Sees.
Ray had a pretty good day today in spite of being tired,and was delighted that most of the tubes and wires attached to him in one manner or another, were finally removed. Now the only tube left is the chest tube which is draining fluid from the chest cavity where the upper lobe of the left lung was removed, and that tube will probably be removed tomorrow.
He's been eating good, and he sat up in a chair most of the day, and wandered around the halls of 4 West one time. Tomorrow we'll have to walk some more, because--instead of coming straight home from the hospital, we've decided to bring him over to the hotel where I'm staying where we'll stay one more night. This is a recommendation made by a friend who had to return to the hospital after arriving home when a complication arose. We still don't know when he'll be released from the hospital.
OK, that's it for tonight. I forgot to mention that I'm pretty tired, too. More tomorrow.
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I have been frantic to know about Ray so finally e-mailed someone who I thought would have the blog address (we accidentally lost the information you sent.) I just got on --Mon 10:41 am ...and read your blog. I am SO-O-OOOO glad that the operation is over...sounds like Ray is his old sassy self which is a good thing. Prayers work and you are both in our prayers. Jean Warner
ReplyDeleteRay and Kay,
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the air hole, but it sounds like it shouldn't be long for it to heal and you should be heading home soon. That's amazing that you can run down the halls already. I will be heading to Florida to have my prostate checked on next week. My PSA is 0.2, so I don't expect any surprizes. So, please enjoy watching the snow fall and keep running up and down the halls.
Accept my best wishes.
Ralph