Dad's Operation

Thank you for all the lovely comments and well wishes for my parents on my last post. I usually try and reply to them under each one, but what a week it's been!

I shall launch straight into it by telling you my lovely, kind and gentle dad had his heart valve replacement operation a week ago Thursday. I think it started badly when my parents arrived at the hospital and the room my mum had booked to stay in had been double booked, the poor woman didn't know what to do! Luckily a friend had driven them to Cambridge and found a b&b just a few minutes walk away that relatives sometimes stay in.

Dad was first down on the Thursday morning and the operation took between 5 to 6 hours, then back up to critical care with one to one nursing. Unfortunately when my mum was able to visit him, he wasn't awake. It was hard because the 2 other men there had also had heart ops, but were sitting up in bed, one drinking a cup of tea and both down to the ward by the next day. Obviously you shouldn't compare people, not everyone's operations were the same, but dad ended being on the ventilator until Monday, they just couldn't wake him and then he had a stroke, my poor mum watched people come and go.

We couldn't even go and support my mum as we have coughs and colds and she can't risk catching any germs she could pass onto dad. The good news was that the operation itself had gone very well, they had hoped to just repair the valve rather than replace it, but it was too damaged. I can't help but think that's something to do with having to wait over a year for the operation. The nurses did comment to my mum what a remarkable man my father is, how quickly he seemed to start regaining strength in his left arm after the stroke and how he never complains about anything, even pain.

Mum would ring every morning after getting the hospital update before going up to see him, then in the evening when she returned to the b&b. She had to return home on Tuesday as she had a hospital appointment herself and a friend took her back on Friday.

When mum left dad, he was on a feeding tube and terribly confused. Even though he is a wisp of the man he was, he has had the tube removed as he is eating now and having build up drinks. Still a bit confused and desperately tired, dad is so much better! He was having one to one nursing until Friday morning and mum says his care has been amazing, they couldn't be any better or any nicer. I think it's going to be a slow, uphill journey, but dad is making improvements everyday.

It's been a bit of a nightmare, and we thought we'd lost him, so even though he is still in hospital, wired up and stuck in bed or a chair... it's still heaps better. He is oblivious to it all, I think my poor mum has probably aged another 5 years though and I still get butterflies waiting to hear the daily update.

I'm going to make myself a cup of my new tea then get the table ready for dinner.

Take care
xxx