Tuesday 1/5/21

No posts for the past few days ->  Lazy blog host.

Anyway, very good news.  Kelly has made an almost remarkably miraculous recovery.  All lines and tubes are out.  She is walking pretty well with a walker.  We hope that she will be discharged on Thursday.  She has to stay here in Cleveland for an outpatient appointment on next Monday.  Then, we hope to be on our way home on Tuesday, a week from today.  

1/17/21

Above is the post I wrote to let people know of Kelly's great progress.  I did everything but hit the PUBLISH button which adds it to the blog.  I'm really sorry if I made anyone worried due to lack of information.  I also thought that everyone was in on the texts but I discovered that that was not the case.  So again I'm sorry.  I didn't do a very good job with this blog seeing as how I had practice with two other serious medical blogs for Kelly; first her epidural abscess in Buenos Aires and second, her first heart and aorta surgery here in Cleveland.  Hopefully I won't have an opportunity for more practice.

Anyway, we are back here in Albuquerque thankful for the blue skies.  Kelly is doing her rehab walking around our back yard with the dogs.  She can't start more vigorous PT \ OT for another 5-6 weeks and she can't drive or sit in the front seat of the car for another 6 weeks so now it's "Driving Miss Kelly". 

Bottom line is that she will certain make a full recovery thanks in part to all of your support, kind thoughts and love.

Thanks to all, 

Love,

Kevin

Saturday January 2, 2021

Not surprisingly, it was raining.  It's always raining here.  I grew up in northern Indiana and it was bad but this seems to be at another order of magnitude.  So I decided to take the day off today to enjoy spending time with Kelly and to sleep.  

Kelly is doing great today and sounds like her old self.  She remains pretty weak and her fine muscle control sucks - but both are a world better than yesterday.  She tried to look at things on her cell phone but kept dropping it on her chest incision - ouch - until she put a pillow over her chest.  

She'll probably be in the ICU for two more days because she has a spinal drain in.  I don't think she needs it but they see that she has gotten better and so want to keep it a while longer.

That's all for tonight.

Friday 1/1/21

 Good news.  Sorry that I haven't added anything for a while but I really didn't know anything.  I couldn't see her until visiting hours which start at 11:00 AM here.  They took her breathing tube out a little while ago.  She is able to move all 4 extremities but she is still very weak - barely against gravity.  Her right arm and hand are just barely movable.  She is able to talk a word or so but doesn't want to.  I'm sure her throat is very sore.  She knows who and where she is but not quite the date or month.  Of course I didn't even realize that it was NYE until I got home last night.  No bangs, booms or fireworks here that I could tell of.  She is very uncomfortable in her body which is common with people who haven't had oxygen to the brain for a while.  That will go away in a day or so.  What she needs most is sleep - of course in the ICU that is one thing you don't get with hourly neuro checks.  Hopefully tomorrow she will be able to sit in a chair and if she does OK with that she can move to step down where she can get some PT.  She will need that for a while and it will likely delay our return to Albuquerque - don't know yet.  I hope you can follow this stream of consciousness - I am happier than yesterday when I was truly miserable.  Thanks to all.

Thursday 12/31

 Hi all,

I'm not quite sure what to say because things are mostly unknown right now.  Things are not going as well as I had hoped.  She is waking up but not moving her extremities as well as she should be.  She is down getting multiple MRIs right now which may help tell what is causing this but not likely to tell what can be done about it.  She was moving her legs and left arm when I left her as she went down for MRIs.  It wasn't clear if she was always doing this on command.  She definitely recognized me but is still intubated and so it's hard to say how clear she is.  The next 24 hours will tell a lot about how this ends up.  I don't know when I'll have anything new to report but will let you all know.

Major Surgery Day

 Kelly went to surgery this morning.  She slept pretty well last night.  Her major concern this morning was how scared our dogs will be with all the New Years fireworks and gunshots in Albuquerque.  

Her vascular surgeon is Dr. Bakeen

About Dr. Faisal Bakaeen, Heart Surgeon

Hello! My name is Dr. Faisal Bakaeen and I am a cardiac surgeon having graduated from Cambridge University School of Medicine in 1994. To date, I have performed approximately 2,500 cardiac surgeries, of which over 750 involved heart valve procedures. I regularly perform surgery at Cleveland Clinic.

I believe my greatest strength is that I believe being a heart surgeon is a tremendous privilege. Surgery can often give patients the best chance of a cure and add valuable years to their lives. Excellence in patient care and outcomes drive our success.

I received a text that the initial incision was at 9:39 Eastern Time.

12:03 -  The major portion of the surgery is underway.

3:45 - The surgery is done.  I just got done talking with the surgeon.  He says that everything went well.  Several of the things that he was afraid might happen didn't.  He says that everything that they can measure with her looks good.  It won't be until later, after she wakes up, that they can measure her brain function which is what she was most afraid of.  She was under induces cardiac arrest for around 20 minutes which I think is about expected.

I'll be able to see her for 10 minutes or so later this evening.  She'll still be intubated and out of it but it will be wonderful to see her face.  I was about to puke the last couple of hours. 

Love you all and more sometime later.

Cleveland Clinic Part II

I meant to have this set up days ago but I had endless problems with the app and only got it ready on Tuesday night.  This should give those of you who aren't aware of what's going on a little background.  You can continue to text or email but even better if you add a comment to this post.  Thanks for all your support.  

Well, we are back in Cleveland for more surgery.  For those of you who are not up to date, I will fill you in.  Two years ago, the last time we were here, Kelly had an operation for cardiomyopathy on her heart to make the heart muscle smaller.  She also had her aneurysmal (swollen) ascending aorta (the part that comes right out of the heart) replaced with a Dacron graft.  All went very well and we were both impressed with how together this place is.  After we got home she had rehab and did great until the fall of 2018 when she had a dissecting thoracic/abdominal aortic aneurysm that was repaired in Albuquerque with three stents.  Again she did well but follow up on that a year later showed that the lower stent was leaking.  We have been following that leaking stent every 6 months.  The last CT unexpectedly showed that her aortic arch was aneurysmal.  So we are here again to have that fixed.  Unfortunately, you can’t plan this stuff.  Things happen when they will happen.

All her initial workup, labs, COVID, cath., & etc was all negative or unremarkable.  She has been otherwise great.  She walks 3-5 miles a day and we bike ~20 miles a week.  Today, Monday,  she is having a carotid bypass so that her brain and arm can get blood while her heart is stopped.  She is in surgery as I write this. 

On Wednesday, she will have the big operation.  They will cool her down, stop her heart and then replace the arch.  It's pretty scary shit that no surgeon in New Mexico would touch.  It's reassuring to have a surgeon who states, "I do this all the time."

We are staying in room 728 at:

Residence Inn Cleveland University Circle/Medical Center                                         1914 East 101st Street                                                                                               Cleveland, Ohio 44106 US

New Shiny Heart

Kelly had a couple of things that kept her in the hospital. She had three chest tubes connected to clunky canisters that we had to drag around on a walker.  Her Sodium was low.  She had extra fluid and air around her lungs.  Yesterday, miraculously, all those things pretty much disappeared.  Chest tubes came out.  Sodium was OK. Fluid and air around lungs were OK.  She had an echocardiogram that showed absolutely perfect/normal parameters which is not at all what she had when she came in.  I'm amazed that they can change the structure of the heart to make it function as it should.  So, bottom line, they said, "Get out of here."  And we did.  We're now sitting comfortably in the Holiday Inn - (which if I never have to spend another night in a Holiday Inn it is too soon - but glad it's here.)

And then there's Cleveland.  Around 1900 it was one of the most prosperous cities in the world.  In 1949 the population was 916,000 people.  Today,  the population is 375,000.  The back streets are almost gravel/dirt/mud.  I am sure the major industry is medicine.  I guess there is insurance here as well.  Cleveland Clinic is enormous - there is a huge building for every organ in the body.  The cardiac surgery alone is 9 stories with I don't remember how many ICUs.

I  went to two concerts at Severance Hall, one of the great concert hall in the world.

Severance Hall is a little over a mile away. The first concert was a Brahms violin concerto which was so romantic but perfect for a big victorian concert hall. Then, I went with my bil, Terry,  to a concert of Beethoven's third, 'Eroica', - so cool to hear a concert like this performed by one of the great orchestras in the world. in the morning, with lots of Ohio kids who were spellbound, I guess, and quiet.
  
I went the Cleveland Art Museum which was also about a mile away and totally free - come and go as you wish.  A legacy from when  Cleveland was one of the most properous cities on the planet.

Today, Kelly felt well enough to go out and so we went to the museum together.

Kelly clearing our table at the museum cafe.

It's a spectacular museum ,and it's free, and there's a free shuttle from our hotel.  It was so nice to be getting back to pretty normal things.

Saturday morning we fly out of Cleveland and back home to Albuquerque.  The weather has been so cold and nasty here that all kinds of people are asking us about what it's like to live there - They especially want to know about the weather.  One interesting thing the clinic concierge told us is to not tell any of the airline personnel what kind of procedure she had because their policy is to wait 10 weeks prior to flying.  CC says that they fly lots of people out days after open heart surgery with no problems.  So, fly we shall. 

Thanks for all your support.  See you soon