Surgery Day

Monday, 25 January 2016

We woke up at 4:00 am. Well, we actually didn't sleep well last night. Even Indy had me up about every hour wanting to go outside. She new something was up and couldn't settle in.

We got to the hospital by 5:30 am and reported to Ambulatory Surgery around 6:00 am. Gene finally went back and once they got him settled I got to go back. 

The anesthesiologist came in and around 7:20  he was ready to get his part started. Dr Kukar had decided to go with Morphine in the spine for pain. He aid this would work better than the other option. Sometimes this will work for 24 hour from onet. Other times not as long.

By 7:30 he aid it was time to give him a kiss and and hug and he would see me later. When I went up and checked him name on the screen that keeps track of where they are in their procedure it said that he went back into surgery at 7:49 am.

Sine our cell phone doesn't work, I got a pager. I no sooner got the text that he was in surgery than Gloria and Bill (sister-in-law and her husband) stepped off the elevator. I was glad to see them.

I got messages about every 2 hour "Surgery if going along well," Surgery is going well an the doctor is working (I sure hope he was).

We went to lunch about 1:00 and got back up to the waiting room around 2. We figured he had to be almost done. Dr Kukar said it should take between 4 and 8 hours. By 4:00 (8 hours) al we knew is that surgery was going well. 

About 5:30 one of the girls at the desk came back and asked if we had gotten a message. She barely got it out and it went off . . urgery complete and closing.

Between 5:50 and 6:00 Dr Kukar came out. He said Gene had done well. Only 2 problems:

1. They had to give him some blood pressure meds.
2. Hi Pancreas was very porous, I think. ANd the Pancreatic Duct was very small . . he had talked to use last week about the fact that this duct is very mall and very hard to stitch so it will seal. So he found out Gene's was smaller than normal so our only real worry i that it may not seal and Pancreatic leakage is one of the problems of this surgery. We should know if it seas in a day or two, If not, then we deal with that.

Gloria, Bill and I finally got to see Gene at 8:00 pm . . . 12 hours and 15 minutes since surgery had started.

He was really drugged up with Morphine. But he did wake up enough to talk a few words to us then went back to sleep.

I am planning on heading in there when I get up in the morning. Hopefully I will remember what I want to ask the nurses. He is in Intermediate Care, which works with Intensive Care but not as dramatic. Patient are in their own rooms with Closed Circuit monitors going to the nurses desk. 

They encourage family to visit so there are no set visiting hours. And, if I wanted to, I could spend the night. But, with Indy home alone, I will probably see him in the morning then go back in the late afternoon and stay log enough to miss the traffic heading home.

 Next, time to go to bed. Been away since 4:00 am . . and neither Gene, Indy or I slept very well last night and, now, I am FINALLY feeling it.