Still No ­­ Release Today, Either

I was so tired yesterday that I went back to the motel about 4:30 PM and was asleep almost before I got my my shoes off. When I awoke a couple of hours later, I splurged on a subway sandwich for supper from the little shop immediately next door to the motel, took a shower, checked my email, watched TV until my hair dried, then passed out again. That's when I discovered that the old saying "early to bed, early to rise" isn't just an old saying; it's the literal truth. My eyes popped open at 5 AM and there was no going back to sleep. So I was up by 5:30, downstairs waiting for a taxi by 6, and in Ray's room before the doctor's made rounds (for the first time).

He still has a tiny "leak", so they still can't remove his chest tube and release him. Even with the delay, he's a little happier this morning than he was yesterday because they swapped out the bed he's been in since they brought him back from the operating room, which is very high and difficult to get out of. Now he's in a lower bed, and can get in and out by himself. (Ah! The return of self-control! So great!)

Ray and I both have been a little confused about this "leak" business because he has a dressing around the tube where it enters his chest which has to be changed several times a day, so we weren't sure whether they were referring to that leaking fluids or the remaining lobe of his left lung leaking air. Since I was here for rounds this morning, with my usual questioning, we learned that they are talking about an air leak. Apparently there is not a clear demarcation between the lobes of the lungs, so when they removed the upper lobe, they had to "dissect" it away from the lower lobe, and the lower lobe was "nicked" leaving a small hole in it, allowing air to escape into the chest cavity where the upper lobe once resided. The chest tube allows both air and fluids to drain out of the chest cavity, and keeps the chest cavity from filling with air, and enough pressure to collapse the lower lobe. So they want that "leak" to heal before they remove the chest tube, else he will just have to return to the hospital and have another chest tube installed.

They will check the situation again this afternoon, and if the leak has sealed itself, they will remove the tube. Four hours later they will do another xray to see how things look, and if everything's OK, he will be discharged tomorrow.

So, obviously, your thoughts and prayers are still very muchneeded. We sure would like to be home before the big snow storm starts moving across Virginia on Friday! Love, Kay

PS: The times on these posts are West Coast time because that's where the server is located. So if you want to know when it was relly posted, add 3 hours.