Saturday, December 18

There isn't much to report today as Dad seems to be more or less the same as he's been for the past couple of days. They did the gall bladder U/S and said that everything seems to be fine there. His color is worse today from the jaundice, but again, the nurses say everything is functioning fine as far as they can tell and it is nothing to worry about. The other news is that he has pneumonia in both lungs, but again, they think they have it under control. They are suctioning him out regularly and he appears to be uncomfortable from the secretions in his lungs. He's also less "with it" now than he was immediately after the surgery and over the last weekend--I think it's largely because at this point he's been sedated for a week and a half and he's simply weak and tired. When he struggles to wake up when we are visiting, we encourage him to settle down and sleep, sleep, sleep.

Mom spoke with a cardiologist today who has never seen Dad before but who has been following his progress. The doctor said that Dad's numbers are improving slowly and that he WILL get better, but it'll probably be weeks at least until he is "better" in our eyes. I hope that in the next week we are able to get an official appointment with one of his main doctors to get an overall analysis and prognosis rather than trying to catch the doctors as they make their rounds or as they are on their way to another appointment. I know Dad is getting the best care available, but I get frustrated getting all of the information about him second- and third-hand.

It was really quiet on the hall this weekend--I guess not many people schedule major cardiac surgery at the holidays!