Two hours later, the status board read the same thing. I asked our liaison if it was current and he called the OR to learn that Michael was just then being "draped and prepped" for surgery. We believe the surgery did not actually begin until 10:45. After that, the board read, "Surgery Started":
I got busy on my "projects" and Mari Ann played Solitaire on her iPad. At noon, we were called into a conference room to talk with Dr. Gardner. "Wow," we thought, "he's done already!" The last thing we expected were these words to come out of his mouth, "We've stopped the operation. His heart was showing signs of strain."
After bits and pieces of news all day long, we were able to piece together what happened. Apparently, the anesthesiologist left the operating room once the surgery commenced and his student noticed irregularities with Michael's heart. Cardiology was alerted and from that point on, he became their patient. We think he was never in any danger; they stopped before it got to that point. However, they could not be sure he didn't have a heart attack.
So this became his status around 12:50, "To ICU":
After waiting in the tinier, less private, ICU waiting room, we got in to see Michael around 2:00. Bless his heart, he was still groggy from the anesthesia, but he thought he was dying. He said he woke up to "chaos". But he was only concerned for us and said he didn't want anyone to fly in. At 2:50, we saw the ICU doctor, who added some details to the basics Dr. Gardner told us at noon.
Settled safely in ICU, Mari Ann and I ran to grab something to eat in the cafeteria. When we returned, Michael's head was clear and he sounded a lot like his old, perhaps a little less sweet, self. His nose was draining blood and he complained of congestion, but that was relieved when he finally coughed up a blob of bloody goo. He drifted in and out of sleep.
At 5:45, we learned that a trauma patient needed his room in ICU, so he was moved to Neurology ICU. We met up with him there just before 6:30, at which time we had to vacate ICU for two hours. (No visitors between both 6:30 and 8:30 am and pm.) Luckily, though, by this time we had met the cardiologists and saw Dr. Gardner once again.
The primary concern for the 24 hours following the attempt at surgery was to watch Michael's heart and learn whether or not he had a heart attack. The cardiologist and Dr. Gardner were hesitant to guess what would happen once that was determined; however, Dr. Gardner did say that the POSSIBLE best case scenario would be that Cardiology releases him today (Friday) and the operation is re-scheduled for... next week. (Earlier, he suggested it might be a go back home, return in six months kind of thing.)
Michael is very disappointed that he still has the little friend in his head; however, he has not wavered in his desire to complete the operation. His biggest problem in ICU has been that it's so darned cold and he could not eat or drink after midnight because of the tests being performed on Friday. He'll hate me for posting this, but it's for you all to see that, except for his white gauze mustache, he is honestly doing fine:
What we know today is that at around 11:00, Michael's stress test began when he was injected with the tracing material. At 12:30, he will be taken for photos, then will be given a drug to expand his arteries, after which they will take more pictures. If there's any sign of heart damage or disease, the arteries will not expand. There is no indication that he won't pass the stress test; his enzymes are "fine" and his overnight EKG was "completely normal".
They are doing this kind of stress test... a "chemical" stress test because we're not sure Michael could maintain his balance for the duration of the standard treadmill stress test. We laughed; it's the lazy man's stress test. Results will arrive within 30 minutes following the entire 3-4 hour process, but that doesn't mean we'll learn the results within 30 minutes. If Cardiology releases him, we'll meet with Dr. Gardner and decide what happens next.
Anything else at this point would be speculation. That's typical of this entire ordeal... we've never quite been able to answer the questions that everyone wants to know. Although I'm sorry I can't satisfy the curiosity of those concerned, I am not too concerned myself. If it's baby steps, that's fine with me... as long as with each one of those steps, Michael is still here with us.
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