I’m overjoyed to report that Mrs. T’s condition has improved significantly since yesterday. She was having problems with “coagulopathy,” which is a fancy way of saying that her blood wasn’t clotting properly, and so she’d been receiving blood transfusions ever since her transplant surgery. No more: the internal bleeding has stopped, she is resting comfortably, and her doctors are completely satisfied with her progress to date.
The next step comes tomorrow. Mrs. T’s chest has been open ever since her surgery, which is standard operating procedure for a double lung transplant (and which absolutely horrified her when she was first told about it a year ago). Assuming that everything continues to go well, they’ll wash out her chest cavity and close her up some time tomorrow. We expect that she’ll remain unconscious for at least another couple of days after that, which is also part of the plan. For now, though, she is continuing to rest comfortably and recover from the surgery.
The nurses ordered me—very politely, but they were firm about it—to stay home from the hospital today. “If you come in, she won’t know that you’re there,” the chief nurse told me. “You might as well rest up now, since she’ll be needing you as soon as she comes around. Stay home and take it easy while you can.” So that’s my plan: old movies, Chinese takeout, and megadoses of music.
More as it happens, but I don’t expect anything more to happen today—and that’s the best of all possible news.
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UPDATE: Mrs. T is still doing just fine as of midday Wednesday. Her chest cavity will be closed up first thing Thursday morning (yes, this is standard operating procedure!). They’ll start to wean her off sedation at that point and begin the gradual process of waking her up. I’ll be there and will keep you posted.
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