The Big Day - ICU Adventures

Note edits below in RED - I remembered these items after posting

After meeting with Dr. Svensson, Beth and I went to Mass in the chapel, giving thanks to God, for guiding the surgeon's hands. It was incredibly hot in the chapel, save a small area where there was a portable air conditioner. I promptly sat right in front of it's vent so as to take advantage of the slight cooling it provided. Needless to say, Father turned the AC off, immediately upon his arrival. It was a sweltering, but Blessed experience.

(I had the rest of this updated at 1:30 am...then my hotel internet connection *&%$'ing bleeped off and my edits were lost. I hope I can remember it all)

After leaving Mass, Beth and I went to lunch, where I proceeded to spill tomato florentine soup on her shoe, making her look somewhat like someone who was standing next to the wrong person at a rock concert. Around 2 we checked in at the ICU and were told that someone would take us to Barb's bed. There are four ICU units, all sort of "dormitory style", and quite identical looking. Our guide led us through the doors - foam in, foam out (with the super-duper antibacterial foam) and proceeded to take us to the bed of some 60+ year old man. Our first thought was that Barb was given a gender-changing operation, with aging included...not so, we were in the wrong unit. Whew! Had me nervous for a minute.

We arrived at Barb's bedside to a mass of breathing tubes, IV's, other injectable devices, drainage hoses an a lot of beeping and wierd noises. Behind all of that though, Barb looked beautiful. Because she was breathing very well at this point, the nurse had begun the procedure to remove the breathing tube, which means turning off all the sedatives and pain killers, so that she can be awake enough to truly breath on her own once the tube is removed. The breathing tube became more and more uncomfortable for her, as she emerged from the sedatives. Also, she recognized the pain (9 out of 10). At one point Barb tried to sign that she was in pain, but in my utter stupidity, I could not make it out. She was given a pen and paper and she scrawled the word pain on it...but they could not give her more pain medication until the tube was removed. At some point, Neil, the bed nurse, said "hey, are you going to be here?" "Sure", we said. "Good", he says, "I'll be right back" and he disappeared for 15-20 minutes...so basically, he left me and Beth in charge - not the brightest move, in my estimation.

About 4 or 4:30, they kicked us out (which they did for each and every sterile procedure) so that they could remove the breathing tube. We were visited by a young lady, who, though VERY pregnant, could not have been older than 12 (to our eyes). Turns out, she was the respiratory therapist, much older than 12, who was going to remove the tube - except that she would require a step stool to reach Barb's tube... Turns out, she went to lunch and another therapist actually did the deed. When we came back in, Barb was talking (with quite a rasp) and pretty cogent; so much so that she told me to stop saying that "she looked better this time than after the hip operation". Over the next couple of hours the nurse got her pain under better control and by 6 I was falling asleep, leaning on the bed rail. At that point, Beth and I left, went to our respective hotels and got a snack and a short nap.

When we returned at 8 pm, Barb was awake, pain under reasonable control (5 out of 10) and she was taking small quantities of ice chips. At this point, Barb began asking about the kids, wondering what they were doing and suggesting what they should be doing - in other words, clearly her condition was improving, as she was beginning to micromanage the activities at home, from her ICU hospital bed. The bed nurse thought that she would be transferred to a step-down room by noon on Wednesday (7/8). When we left at 9, Barb was sleeping - beautifully. - Gil