Surgery or No Surgery?

Wednesday morning after much debate and lots and lots of tests, my dad was scheduled for surgery at 12pm. I got Katherine ready to go to school and I went over to the hospital to be with my mom and dad.

The nurse came into the room at about 10:30am and said that they were going to do one more x-ray at 12pm before surgery. They knew that there was a blockage on the left side but didn't know exactly where. We were not sure which type of x-ray that they were going to do so we asked the nurse if it was going to be the hour and half test or just a regular x-ray. Turns out, it was just a quick x-ray and we would find out the results within the hour.

Right before 1pm, we got the news that my dad was going to surgery. There were two nurses ready to take him down to pre-op. That really hit quick! In less than 10 minutes from hearing that he was going to have surgery, we were in the elevator going down to the pre-op room.

My dad was scheduled for surgery at about 3pm. I had to make other arrangements to have Katherine picked up from school since we were told that the surgery would take anywhere from one hour to an hour and a half. There were two nurses getting my dad ready and the doctors came in to answer any and all questions.

They weren't too sure where the blockage was but they had an idea. It was about 3:30pm by the time we were done asking questions and my dad was wheeled into surgery.

My mom and I waited. We joked to pass the time. At about 4:45pm, the surgery was over and the doctor came out to let us know how my dad was doing. He said that the blockage was from scar tissue but it was really thick so they just couldn't take that off, they had to take off about 2 inches of my dad's small intestine.

It would take my dad about 3 to 5 days to recover and everything would be back to normal except that at the end of surgery, he had very shallow breathing. That was to be expected due to the pneumonia. The doctor had my dad spend the night in ICU while he was on the ventilator.

According the the ICU nurse, my dad woke up fighting. He moved his right arm in which he hasn't moved since he had his first stroke in 2005. So, they sedated him for the night.

When my mom called the ICU this morning (Thursday), they said that they wanted to get him off of the ventilator but slowly. By about 11am, they had him off of the ventilator and he was able to talk.

All of his vitals are up and he is spending one more night in ICU as long as things go well tonight. The doctor will make the decision if he will move to a regular room tomorrow.

So, all is going well and it is just a waiting game. He is still being very nice and not cussing anyone out yet. Not too sure when that side of my dad will appear. :)