Day 1 - Post Brain Drain Surgery

Hi again!

Here's another report on Jimmy's journey for those of you who are taking time away from your, hopefully, enjoyable weekend to check in. When I came in this morning, Jim had his bed turned to face the window and was nice and awake. He had had a good night and seemed quite alert. He was still a little confused as to exactly where he was, but he was getting most of the questions right. When he didn't know the answers, he would evade with questions of his own or mumble to try to throw me off. As most of you know, he's blessed with a silver tongue and is pretty good with steering a conversation. Unfortunately for him, we've been married too long for his charm to work on me! He also made a grand effort to get me to remove his wristbands, which is what he calls his 'reminders'. He did a very good job of shifting back and forth between pleading and pouting, but I just don't trust the sneaky little sucker! He's got way too many tubes to be yanked on to be trusted yet. When he can stop being confused, then we can remove the pesty wristbands.

Dr. Fiorella came in to check on him. He doesn't want to rush the coiling because they have to give him a heavy dose of heparin and probably aspirin to keep his blood very thin. Then they need to keep him on them for a few days after the coiling, so he wants to make sure that the temporary bleeding that is currently being drained from his head from yesterday's surgery is all done. Therefore, I don't think they will attempt anything before the latter part of next week. He also talked about doing the balloon angio first and then waiting a few days to do the coiling. It sounds like the coiling procedure will be quite intense. Because the vessels that they need to coil off completely are very large, it will require a lot of coils and very precise placement. It is difficult to place enough coils and in such a way that they don't allow any of the bloodflow to trickle through. Then they have to worry about managing the clotting so that it is done in the right places and not too much. So, more major stuff!

Just to make sure that I didn't get too excited and start to do my happy dance because of the vast improvement from yesterday, Jimmy decided to do his 'I'm too tired to wake up and respond' routine again. This started the red flags waving again and another barrage of tests -- all which came back negative...thankfully. I swear he'll do anything for attention. After four anguished hours of letting him sleep the day away, Jimmy woke up all perky and complaining again. I swear I'm going to be more wacky than him by the time we get through this!

Anyway, that's a synopsis of today's adventures. No doubt Jimmy will continue to keep everyone on their toes, so please gear your prayers for a continued successful recovery without any MAJOR complications -- and we'll just keep dealing with these curve balls that Jim keeps throwing. I'm doing my best to concentrate on the baby steps and to be satisfied with those for now.

So, please enjoy the rest of your weekend. I heard that you got some beautiful new snow last night -- I'm sorry (smile). Please pray that Jim can require a little less attention and that he can continue healing and getting stronger in preparation for his next big steps. Thank you, again, for your continued love and support. God bless you for sticking through this incredible journey with us.

Love,
Krissy