The Most Intense Day of Our Lives

Thanks so much for all the prayer on our behalf today.  I don’t think I’ve had a more loaded day.  It’s 11:15 and we just got back to the Tiverton guest house after spending some time with Rudy.  The team is very pleased with his status.  It was good to see him back in the room, albeit unsettling.  Trish was pretty wiped out after all of this and we decided she would go back to the room for a rest.  I stretched out on the fold-out chair at the back of Rudy’s room and dozed off intermittently while different members of the team regularly checked on him and made small adjustments here and there.  The rarity of this condition was underscored by how many doctors were coming by to take a look–a Norwood procedure is a big deal.  Even before we were able to get up to see Rudy, I ran into Dr. Satou in the lunchroom and he was well apprised that the procedure was completed–word travels fast. 

It was pretty easy to overlook me behind all the equipment so I picked up a few comments from other doctors lauding Dr. Reemtsen’s skills and was comforted to see him stop in about every 30 minutes to check on things.  The nurse told me later that the last time he came by was about 8pm–he had promised us in our initial meeting that he would be closely supervising Rudy’s care and he is certainly making good on that.  Throughout the afternoon the reports remained consistent–the vital signs and the labs were all coming back right where they wanted them to be.  The one detail of concern is that he isn’t urinating as much as they’d like (indicating that the kidneys have kicked in), so that’s one thing they’re working on.  It really is an incredibly disruptive operation–the body gets chilled down to a point of suspended animation and then put on a bypass machine to circulate blood without using the heart.  It’s not like they can just flip a switch and have everything come on again, so these next two days are very critical as they slowly bring things up to speed together.  One doctor likened it to a tightrope walk, but they liked my own analogy of trying to balance a scale on a wobbly table.  Rudy’s situation both before and after surgery has been one of critical balance, but the team doesn’t feel like they ever had to chase after him because he got so far out of allowable tolerances.  Praise God.

This day had a comforting ending.  I went back to the Tiverton to check on Trish and checked in with the kids by phone on the way.  Poor Olivia is having problems holding it together and was begging us to come home.  Trish was tired and worn down.  Not only was it an exhausting day, but this is about the time postpartum hormonal stuff should be happening on top of it.  We decided to go out and get a quick dinner and then say good night to Rudy up at the hospital.  We ended up spending over an hour up there as the room was so peaceful.  Rudy progress is a comfort, but more than that was the time we were able to sit and visit with Nita, the Cardiologist who will be watching over Rudy tonight.  Another super-gifted doctor and a gracious warm-hearted person who served as a very friendly debrief to our day.  She’s one of many who are patient with repeated questions and her knowledge of what we’re facing puts her in a position to offer unique comfort.  She again reiterated that this is the time for us to sleep–they’ll be in there with Rudy almost non-stop tonight, so we can rest easy and leave him in her and Nurse Monina’s hands.

Thanks again for praying us through the day.