A Pioneer Day to remember

We are spending today in the hospital, enjoying the view, and waiting for fireworks to begin.

On Tuesday, July 22nd at 6 am, Reb and Marsha arrived at Huntsman for surgery.  They took Reb back about 7:30.  After fainting during the epidural insertion, the surgery got off to a great start. Mark's brother Michael was the anesthesiologist during the procedure.  At about 3 pm, part of the surgical team came to talk to the family in the waiting room.  The surgery went well.  They took off the entire right lobe, it totaled about 50% of the liver.  While they were cutting away, they found another suspicious spot on the left side.  They scooped that out and sent it for biopsy.  He didn't need a blood transfusion, which was wonderful news.  The liver is such a vascular organ, blood transfusions are very common during this surgery.

Right after surgery, they had a hard time controlling the pain, so they kept adding on the narcotics.  After a while, they were having a hard time waking him up. They cut down the pain medications and gave him some different medication to counteract the narcotics in attempts to wake him up.  At about 4pm,  they finally brought him up to the recovery room.  He was heavily medicated and trying his best to put on a show entertaining the nurses.

They had Reb hooked up to many wires and machines.  He had IVs in each hand, and a central IV line in on his left shoulder. He has an epidural in his back, and oxygen in his nose.  Reb was so heavily sedated, his breathing alarms kept going off.  Marsha had to keep reminding him to take big deep breaths.  At about 8 pm, they decided to reduce his narcotics and readjust his monitors and that seemed to do the trick.  About 10 pm, everything was running smoothly, and Marsha could finally go home.

On Wednesday, the 23rd Reb was able to get up and walk around.  He was making laps around the 5th floor in no time.  They also started him on regular food.  His last surgery, they had him on broth only after about 24 hours, and another 24 before he could try something simple like soup.  He was eating a real meal about 24 hours after recovery.  He couldn't eat much, but it was the effort that matters.

Today, the 24th, they moved Reb to a different room.  He is no longer in the intensive care unit.  He still has a west-facing room to allow us a great view of fireworks.  His new room number is 5504.  It is a good step up in recovery.  They have removed the IVs in each arm, and are going to probably remove the epidural tomorrow.  He has had a few visitors from the ward and various friends to keep the family company as we keep our vigil.  

Jeff is in charge of taking pictures, so we are going to post pictures of the amazing view we are enjoying from here.

If you want to give Reb a call, his number is (801) 587-5504.  When he came to the hospital, they said he would be here about a week.  We aren't sure what day he will be released, but he is looking forward to resting at home in his own bed without nurses rushing in every hour.