(4:00pm) I just spoke to Rob’s surgeon. The surgery went well and I will be able to see him briefly in about a half hour in the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit (CTU). Once the breathing tube and monitoring equipment have been removed (in a day or two), he will be moved to the step-down unit where he will likely spend the better part of a week. Visitors are restricted in the CTU, but once he is in the step-down unit, he…
2:35pm – No update yet, but hanging in there. Slow and steady…
Rob went into surgery about 20 minutes ago (7:45am). I met many of the members of the surgical team and they all looked fresh and ready-to-go. He’s in good hands. One of the doctors did warn me that this will be a long and careful procedure and not to panic if it seems to be taking longer than the 7 or so hours estimated. But my understanding is that I will be provided with updates and I will pass them along on…
Well, when a heart shows up on ice and you have a taker, I guess it’s time to re-arrange the surgeon’s schedule to fit in a heart transplant***. So…Rob’s surgery has been bumped to Thursday morning (which also happens to be the 26th anniversary of the day we met – some guys will do anything to get out of celebrating a romantic anniversary.) Although he is ready to put the surgery behind him and was disappointed to hear the news, Rob…
A lot of folks have been asking what Rob’s surgery entails. In short, open heart surgery to repair a dilated ascending aorta, dilated aortic root and also replace his 25-year-old mechanical aortic valve while they are in there. The longer version is that Rob was born with a bicuspid aortic heart valve. The condition was diagnosed when a ROTC physical detected a heart murmur. After a few years of monitoring, it was determined that it was necessary to replace his valve and…
With Rob’s heart surgery only a couple days away, I am realizing that relying on me to notify all of our friends and family with updates on Rob’s surgery and recovery in a timely and consistent manner might be pushing it. Combine a little bit of denial with a lot of senior moments, and you’ll get where I am at lately. (As a matter of fact, some of you may only be hearing about this now. Forgive us – it’s been a hectic few weeks!) With that…