A few more days in the hospital

Friends/family,

Another early morning today, but we were somewhat excited because Brent is feeling better and we thought today would be our last full day in the hospital! Brent had his labs drawn this morning and his red blood cell (RBC) count and Hemoglobin & Hematocrit (H&H) were still low, but the cardiologist on call said at least his body didn't eat up all the RBCs from the transfusion yesterday, which was a good sign and also his chest xray this morning showed his pleural effusion was shrinking in size. Praise God for healing! So they decided to go ahead and start him back on Coumadin (the blood thinner he takes daily for his mechanical aortic valve.) The surgeon came in a little while later and informed us we would be staying in the hospital until at least Wednesday because his H&H were too low and so was his INR (INR is basically how thin his blood is - Brent's blood has to be thinner than most people's because he has a mechanical valve and you don't want any clots.) We both were upset about having to stay longer. As I said in my previous post, we want to get out of here! Brent's hospital bed is so uncomfortable - it's so hard for him to sleep - and I can tell he's getting upset. He even told me tonight he was upset and wanted to go home. I tried to comfort him as best I could, but I want to go home too. We want to start putting this behind us and start looking forward! On the positive side, Brent is feeling better every day and recovering fairly well, despite the minor setback yesterday.

Brent's close friend from Ernst & Young came to visit us today and entertained us for about 2 hours. Remember how in my first post I talked about the wedding Brent was a groomsman in just a few weeks back and how the boutonniere was very visibly pulsating along with his heart? It was the same friend - he just returned from his honeymoon in Tahiti so he came to tell us all about it since we are hoping to still go to Tahiti for our honeymoon. It was a very nice distraction and Brent went for 2 walks while his friend was here. We are excited for our honeymoon and really hoping it will be sooner rather than later!

Most of the afternoon was spent sleeping for both of us! While visits from friends are so awesome, they wear Brent out. I have adopted his sleep schedule as well - I usually try to sleep when he sleeps. Unfortunately right now he is tossing and turning a lot in the bed because of pain/discomfort. We've tried to ask for a different type of bed, but the hospital is pretty full. Maybe tomorrow one will become available...but please pray regardless for rest for Brent. The post-surgery nightmares have begun and it doesn't seem very fun. :(

Monday and Tuesday will just be spent waiting for his lab values to return to normal. Please pray that by Wednesday his labs DO return to normal because I don't think Brent and I can handle much longer than Wednesday in the hospital. As always, we appreciate the continued thoughts and prayers. Please please continue to pray for the following:

*Strength for both of us as our spirits are starting to fall - we've been in the hospital for a week - poor Brent hasn't been outside in a whole week and we are VERY outdoorsy people!
*Continued faith in God's plan and that God will reveal to us what His plan now is
*Direction for our future and what we should do about the wedding and my masters program
*An amazing recovery for Brent
*A healthy, healed heart and a 20+ year break from ANY heart surgeries for Brent

Thanks again for the amazing outpouring of thoughts, prayers, and concern - we are truly blessed to have such wonderful, caring people in our lives!

God bless,
Rachel