30 HOURS LATER

So let's see...30 hours...that's 1800 minutes...at 80 beats per minute, that's 144,000 beats. 72,000 openings and 72,000 closings. Yeah...I'd say the valve works.

It has only been 30 hours since she was closed up and sent to the ICU for observation and recovery. When she arrived up there she has a ventilator breathing for her, had 8 IV bags hanging going into a central line in her neck and was going in and out of consciousness due to the Morphine they were administering. When I left tonight, she was walking with the help of a walker and doing laps around her ward. She is truly an amazing woman with incredible willpower.

This morning when I came to see her, she was awake, smiling, watching some TV and making friends with her nurse Lori. That is what Kristi does. She always makes friends with the nurses so she can break the rules (like use cell phones, eating things she's not supposed to, etc.) Once Kristi stabilized her blood pressure they were able to take her off most of the IV's she was on. That was a big change in the amount of plastic tubes leading to her central line. She was still on some oxygen to keep the level up in her blood and over all she was doing really well.

She was visited by her doctors later in the morning. Dr. Bailey and Dr. Razook both came to talk to her again about her procedure. They both said that her surgery was very difficult. Her heart was physically stopped for 158 minutes while they replaced the valve and aortic arch. They reiterated that her valve was in much worse shape than they had originally thought. The ruptured cuspid was hanging on by millimeters of tissue and could have broken free in a matter of hours or days. Had that happened, that tissue would have gone downstream and lodged somewhere in her body. And then her replacement would have been an emergency, which would have a much worse prognoses. They told her that they thought she was doing real well and they were sure she would get back to her regular active self in no time.

This afternoon they had her move from her bed to a chair to eat her lunch. It is quite an ordeal to get her up and moving. You have to make sure no lines are kinked and she is taking all her "gear" with her. But between the nurse and I, we can manage it. After she finished eating and had some time to relax from sitting up she really wanted to stand up and start walking. This made everyone really happy because it is very important for her to move and get everything working again. So we got her up, hung her collection bags, IV's and got moving. She was slow in the beginning, but got moving at a pretty good clip by the time we were nearing the end of our first lap. She got pretty tired when she made it around and we maneuvered back into her room so she could lie down. After a quick nap, she got up again and walked around the nurses station 3 times. Getting faster each time. It is truly amazing to see her push herself to get up and get moving. To get better. And to ensure that she can get back home to me and her 2 babies.

They say that if she continues at the pace she is going, she could get discharged on Friday night or Saturday. Which is crazy to think of. Only 4 days in recovery after a 7 hour open heart operation. We will see what happens. On a better note, I may be able to sleep tonight for the first time since last Sunday.