Mrs. T continues to recover smoothly from her double-lung transplant surgery. Her chest cavity, which was deliberately left open after the operation, was washed out and closed up last night, and the doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital told me afterward that the procedure was uneventful (as they expected it to be).
As for her new lungs, one of her nurses described them to me as “looking beautiful.” She is still deeply sedated and on a respirator, but the slow process of waking her up will commence at some point in the next day or two, and I hope to be by her side when she opens her eyes and realizes that she is (A) not dead and (B) has a brand-new pair of lungs.
I didn’t go to the hospital yesterday, though: I stayed home and spent several hours on the living-room couch, waiting for a call. As those of you who follow the news closely and are familiar with the geography of upper Manhattan may have already guessed, coronavirus has come to my neighborhood. Not only are two victims being treated at New York-Presbyterian, but Yeshiva University’s uptown campus, which is only a few blocks from the hospital and our apartment house, was closed until further notice when an undergraduate there tested positive for the virus.
I’m not an alarmist, and I’m well aware that any personal risk to me is nugatory. On the other hand, Mrs. T, unlike me, is in the highest possible risk category, and it struck me that under the circumstances, it might well be prudent for me to sit tight and wait just a bit longer before visiting her again. Besides, it’s a good time for me to stay home—I’m completely caught up on my work and have no more shows to see until Wednesday—and I can be at the hospital inside of fifteen minutes should anything unexpected happen.
For the moment, then, my plan is to continue resting up from the accumulated stresses of the past few months—and years. Last night, for instance, I sent out for Thai food and watched a Shirley Temple movie, John Ford’s Wee Willie Winkie. I’ll be seeing Mrs. T soon enough, and welcoming her back to the world.
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For previous reports on Mrs. T’s surgery and subsequent recovery, go here, here, here, and here.
To learn more about her rare illness, go here.
To find out how to become an organ donor, go here.