————— One: waiting
Nancy is still in the operating room as of 2:15 P. M. Because of the allergy to heparin other anticoagulation chemicals are being used and these apparently prolong the time needed.
Yesterday I wrote that the operation was scheduled for 7 A. M. but that is the time they began preparations with her. They wheeled her out of the ICU at about 9 A. M. and at this point I do not know exactly when the doctors actually started.
————— Two: news
The news is good. An operating room nurse called about 3:30 to say the surgeons were in the process of finishing the ‘closing’ and Nancy would soon be back in the ICU. They do not expect to have her off the ventilator and awake until Wednesday morning.
The nurse has promised to write a short English-language version of the operation for me to adapt and post here. That may take a day or so. A general idea of such operations can be found on the Web, and so, in case you are curious — below are two of the many pages I have looked at.
The Texas Heart Institute has web pages that provide descriptions of heart surgery. This first is an overview:
http://www.texasheartinstitute.org/hic/topics/proced/
About half way down in this long page you can find a link to “Valve Repair or Replacement Surgery” (just below where “stenosis” and “regurgitation” are explained. Nancy’s problem was regurgitation. It is easier to click on the link on the page, but below is the page you are going to:
http://www.texasheartinstitute.org/HIC/Topics/Proced/vsurg.cfm
Here’s to a good tomorrow.