No more tubes!

Friends/family,


Brent is feeling better and better every minute! It's hard to believe he just had open-heart surgery 2 days ago. He woke up early this morning (5:00 am!) and we moved him up to the chair. He sat up for a little bit, ate a little breakfast, and had his foley catheter removed. They also took out his extra IV's and just left one IV in (in case he needs fluids/meds) but there is currently nothing running through his IV. After a chest x-ray, Megan (Nurse Practitioner) took out his chest tubes, which has greatly decreased his pain. I can't even imagine what it's like to have chest tubes in your body - and how painful it is to have them removed but Brent took it like a champ.

Side note - I love Megan! She's such a smart Nurse Practitioner - she spends so much time with us, answers all of my many questions, and really encourages both of us. I never knew Nurse Practitioners did rounds in the hospital and were so involved with surgery. Her role is so advanced for an NP; it's amazing.


So now Brent is not attached to anything! It's been great - he has been getting out of the bed into the chair mostly by himself and walking to the bathroom with little help. I really think taking the chest tubes out helped a lot. We took 3 long laps today around the Telemetry floor, and Brent did so well. His pulse ox stayed right around 95%, even on the longer walks! (Pulse oximetry measures the oxygenation of blood, normal range is 94%-100%) He still has a lot of pain (they did crack open his chest 2 days ago!), but it's well-controlled with meds. He started cutting down on his pain meds starting tonight, which is good. I'm so proud of him for walking 3 laps today - it's encouraging. We also started reviewing our discharge instructions today - he'll be going home most likely on Monday mid-day. I honestly don't know how post-op heart surgery patients recover without a nurse taking care of them! The instructions are detailed; I've certainly got my work cut out for me.


We did speak with both the surgeon and the cardiologist today and both agreed Brent's making wonderful progress. I really like Brent's cardiologist (Dr. Berdjis.) We spoke with him at length this afternoon. We had read more earlier about the trials going on for transcatheter valve replacement. Transcatheter valve replacement is when heart valves are replaced via a catheter inserted into the femoral artery in the groin instead of a sternotomy (sternal division/open-heart surgery.) (Catheters are small tubes that can be inserted into body cavities or vessels to allow drainage, injection of fluids, or surgical access.) Transcatheter valve replacements are already approved in Europe and hopefully within the next year the FDA will approve them in the USA. The surgeon that researched, invented, and performed the original transcatheter valve replacements (Dr. Philipp Bonhoeffer) is a good friend of Dr. Berdjis as they're both German. :) Dr. Berdjis said he still sees Dr. Bonhoeffer at least once/year and I said "Can you please personally tell him thank you from us?" His research and work is amazing. Dr. Berdjis told us that Brent's new pulmonic valve (which is a pig valve) can last anywhere from 10-20 years. I think we can all agree that Brent deserves a 20 year break! As I've said, we're all praying for that 20 year gap and hoping this was his last sternotomy. It was very encouraging talking with Dr. Berdjis and hearing about all the new research. God bless all of the surgeons who are researching adult congenital heart disease!

Brent has been sleeping most of the day/night - he's probably awake for about 5 hours total of every day. He has been eating - not much, but enough. Hopefully tomorrow he will be more awake yet still feel rested and be able to take less pain medication. I am so excited that he can walk to the bathroom by himself - that's huge! We had date night tonight in the hospital - we turned Jeopardy on the TV, I ate yucky cafeteria food, and Brent ate a little chicken noodle soup. We've been here a week - I needed a date night, especially after my day on Wednesday. ;) Brent stayed awake for at least 4 minutes of our date night, so that was good. We'll try again Saturday night for 6 minutes of awake time. ;)

Things really are progessing well and I am very excited to go back to San Diego on Monday. It will be nice to be at home and I can get back to wedding planning while Brent recovers. Again, we are so grateful for the continued support, prayers, thoughts, phone calls, texts, etc. We have such a great network of friends and family in our lives and there's no way we could do this without you. Brent pulled through his 8th heart surgery because of the prayers of literally thousands of people! THANK YOU so much for praying for my amazing fiance!

Please continue to pray for the following:
*quick and easy recovery
*no pain/discomfort
*healing for Brent's sternum
*no nightmares/peaceful sleep for Brent
*a healthy heart in Brent's future
*no more heart surgeries for 20 years
*a beautiful wedding on August 9th with a fully recovered Brent
*God to use the next 8 weeks in Brent's life for His purpose

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend; please feel free to come visit us at St Joseph Hospital in Orange County or at home next week!

God bless,

~Rachel