After making it into pre-op at around 2:00 am, he was wheeled into surgery around 4:00 am. His bad liver was removed by 7:00 am or so and his new (new to him) liver is being put in now (it's 8:14am).
It sounds like there are still several hours to go and he could be done just before noon today.
Of course once he comes out it will be straight into ICU for about a week. We don't know what the daily routine will be while in ICU. I don't expect it to be a lazy day at the ranch though. When I was going through the process to be a donor, they told me I would be up and walking by the second day or so. That's as a donor.
As a liver recipient, the process is so much more invasive. He will go through a significantly bigger process. I won't even pretend to know what will be happening. But I will post updates as the process goes along and as I learn of them.
If you want to sort of see what happens in surgery, head over to a real liver donor blog. Mike's blog (he has pictures). Some of his pictures are graphic ACTUAL surgery pictures. Lucky him. Our hospital freaked out claiming HIPAA laws. I wish they actually knew what HIPAA was about but that is their boiler plate response to anything. 'No you can't do that, HIPAA'....'Sorry, HIPAA'. Then again, maybe I don't knoew the datails about HIPAA..... but that's for another blog post.
Whatever!
I talked to my sister in law about 30 minutes ago. She's in Atlanta on her way here. She sounded like she has bee run through the ringer. No sleep. Nervous and having to deal with a so called red eye flight cross country.
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2 comments:
Congrats to your father-in-law. Hopefully everything will go well. My ICU stay was under 12 hours, they had me sitting up in a chair in ICU and I was walking within 48 hours. I probably should say shuffling within 48 hours. Everyone is different, but hopefully his recovery will be quicker than expected. I am praying for you all.
Thanks for the prayers. They will be felt and very much appreciated. I will assume that since the recipient is a...well recipient, he will be a little longer than a donor. That was also what was told to me when I was going through the donor process in November.
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