2am. Waiting with Bruce's mom and dad to see him for few minutes in recovery. There are no available beds in ICU yet so he will stay in recovery for now. They said it would be an hour before we can see him so I'm killing time until my battery runs out.
I will try to explain what happened the best I can at this hour. The head surgeon from Lifelink who did Bruce's transplant also did this surgery. After at least 6 hours of NO WORD at all, he walked in the room and first said- "he's ok, the kidney is in, i think it's going to work".... then we sat down for a long explanation of what he actually did. The renal vein had 2 parts that were a circling around the kidney in a way that anywhere the kidney was placed in the body, it was cutting off flow to one or the other side of the vein. He tried it in different positions, so then he took kidney out and modified the vein so that it would sit in the body without this problem. He had to shorten both parts of the vein. I asked him if he ever had to do this before and he said this was VERY rare and it took him forever. This is a surgeon with at least 20 years experience in transplants at the hospital that does the most transplants in Florida. Thank god Bruce had him!
So the outcome is that he will take awhile to wake up from this, they will keep him on ventilator and sedated ( where have i heard that before?...hmm september, seizure?) then let him start to wake up on his own slowly. He will need to get dialysis a couple of times because they expect it to take days for kidney to start really working after all it has been through. But we know it was working before, it just was getting it's flow restricted. He sounded very confident that the problem is resolved and he should be ok. Just not the road we expected and going to take longer.
After day or 2 in ICU he goes back to transplant floor. We just went and cleaned out his old room and we are still waiting to see him. Then I'm going to go to hotel and sleep until they call me to say he is moved into ICU room. This whole thing very surreal at this hour. Battery going...
praying for smooth recovery in next 2 days.
thanks to everyone!
Since by Man Came Death - A Podcast Text
2 years ago
Posts
Thanks for the details. Didn't know a whole lot, except that the surgery was forever! Take care. How are the boys?
ReplyDeleteAmy, I just started reading last night and was absoluty shocked. Everything was going so well, then back to surgery. Poor Bruce has been through so much. Thank God that he is a strong young man and he will pull through this and it will all be worth it. You both are in my prayers. Love, Mrs Claus
ReplyDeleteAmy,
ReplyDeleteI feel so guilty about what is happening to Bruce. I can't stop thinking about why mine went so well and his has not. We are brothers and there is no reason his shouldn't have gone as well. It's really bothering me. Please know that You, Bruce and the boys are on my mind constantly. I look forward to the next update.
So glad to see that the surgery is over and doctor is confident. Poor Bruce, I know how hard the "weaning" off sedation etc. is for Bruce and how much you will hate it. Here's hoping it will go more smoothly here. Hope you can get some sleep now.
ReplyDeleteI am assuming they did the follow up surgery through a conventional incision? Laparoscope surgery is great but sometimes the downside is not seeing everything at one shot. Hopefully this is a good strong kidney and it will take the setback in stride.
ReplyDelete