Today's the day

For those of you who are not on Facebook, here's an update.

11:30 PM -- I'm back in our Seattle house. I'm home late because I opted to stay with Andre and wait for the surgeons to visit him. I was told by the ICU night nurse at about 9:20 PM that they'll check in on Andre. The nurse told them that I'm still around and would appreciate talking with them. I stayed for an hour-and-a-half longer but they never showed up. I decided against spending the night in the ICU with Andre since he's still heavily sedated. He would sometimes wake up from the drug-induced stupor, and would reflexively try to reach for the breathing tube to take it out. I can tell he's experiencing a lot discomfort and suffering whenever the sedative and pain meds go down a certain level. It's difficult to watch. The ICU night nurse who was still trying to find the proper amount of sedation told me that most patients don't remember the discomfort because one of the meds have an amnesic effect. I hope he will be one of those who do forget.

6:20 PM -- Andre is back in the oncology floor (8NE) but he is the ICU, as expected. I was in the surgery waiting room from 2:15 PM. At about 3:40 PM, Andre's daytime nurse called me to say that Andre is out of surgery and that I should wait for one of his surgeons to come talk to me about how it went. Two hours later, there was still no surgeon. I received a call from Andre's new nurse (the ICU nurse) at at 5:45 PM telling me that he is now back in the oncology floor of the hospital. I'm disturbed by the insensitivity of these surgeons, but I'll be patient and reserve the ass whoppin for tomorrow. Andre seems to be okay because when I first saw him, he was responding to the questions the nurse was asking him (If he was in pain? If he needed more pain meds? He answered yes to both). He has a breathing tube and is back to being fully sedated. The ICU nurse told me that her goal for the next couple of hours is to find the right balance between managing Andre's discomfort and keeping him responsive to questions. The last bit is important in judging how soon he be off the breathing tube.

11:30 AM -- I'm back in Andre's hospital room after the nurse and I transported Andre to the OR. This is it folks. Keep rooting for my man.

10:45 AM -- We're still in our hospital room waiting. The transfusion is over and Andre is waking up from the pre-transfusion medication-induced stupor.

8:50 AM -- Andre is sleeping will being transfused with whole blood. His nurse just informed us that he is the second person scheduled today with the cardio-thoracic surgery. The first one is not expected to finish until 10:30 AM.