Merrick's Surgery

This week, time was kept by relation to Merrick's surgery, which took place on Friday.  From about Wednesday on, we talked and thought about little else.  Thursday, we had a quiet night at home as a family and we headed to bed hopeful that we would get some sleep before our very early wake up call the next morning (we had to leave for the hospital at 5:45).  If it gives you a sense of how we all slept, both Merrick and I were up and completely ready to go before our alarm even went off.

Our check in time at the hospital was 6:30 and we spent from then until about 8:15 meeting and talking with all the doctors and nurses.  We had multiple nurses, two cardiologists, and an anesthesiologist.  They each came and talked to us and explained different parts of the process.  Merrick was a trooper, expect he wasn't pleased that the nurse messed up his IV and had to start over at a different site and while she was doing that the doctor in the room was giving all the worst case scenarios.  That was definitely not his favorite part of the day.

At about 8:15, they had Jeremy and I go to the waiting room and took Merrick back to the OR.  I think Merrick was planning on going to sleep pretty quickly, but it didn't really work out that way.  They kept him awake for quite some time so they could get a baseline on his PVCs.  He was having some PVCs at that point, but they wanted to see more so they gave him a medicine to speed up his heart rate.  He started feeling a fair bit of anxiety at that point.  They joked that they could put on a horror movie to get his heart rate up and he answered back that he was already in a horror movie.  Eventually, they felt like they got what they needed and they put him under.

While he was under, his PVCs continued and they did what's called "pace mapping" of his heart.  They found what they believed to be the spot where the PVCs were originating and they cauterized it.  Over the next hour, they monitored him and did everything they could to try and induce the PVCs to return.  They brought him partially out of sedation, they gave him medicine to speed up his heart rate, and they gave him medication to slow down his heart rate.  Through it all, the PVCs stayed away so they put him back under to remove his catheters and then allowed him to start waking up.

At this point, they brought him into his recovery room and, after we talked with the doctors, we were allowed to join him there.  His waking up period was slow, but uneventful.  He would start to wake up and try to sit up and we would have to force him back down and remind him where he was and two seconds later he would be snoring again.

The next six hours were rough as he had to lay flat and still so as to not open back up the entry spot into his femoral artery.  After the 6 hours SLOWLY passed, he was able to get up and walk to the bathroom and then at that point things moved very quickly.  Within about 15 minutes of him getting up for the first time, we were headed home.

Since then, he has been taking it very easy on the couch.  He has a lot of soreness, but his wounds are healing up nicely.  We have had lots of sweet visitors, bringing him all kinds of treats and gifts and he has been very spoiled.  We are extremely grateful for the outpouring of love and support we have felt leading up to, during, and following his surgery.  We have felt very supported throughout a very difficult time and now feel like a huge weight has been lifted.

Following the procedure, he hasn't felt a single PVC.  In two weeks he will have a heart monitor that he will wear for another two weeks and then we will follow up with the cardiologist in February.  We are very hopeful at this point that we are at the end of this very stressful road and that makes us all smiles.