Emilyrae's Journal

Things have been going really well until recently last 6 months, when I noticed that I am having some fatigue - I checked my echos from 4/12 and my pulmonary pressure had gone done to 40 almost normal from a high of 70 before the surgery. 4/13 I noticed it has climbed back to 46. Went to see Pulmonary specialist he wants to do a cath on me as he said sometimes after mitral valve surgery, damage is done to arteries and stays there - doesn\'t remodel. This is worrying me. Has anyone had that happen - I have read that Pulmonary Hypertension is fatal - no cure or surgery for it - treatment is Vigara. Would love to hear some comments on this. Thanks. Any of my old friends of two years ago still posting.

July 12 was my one year anniversary. Been meaning to post an update. I am back to better than normal. My Pulmonary Pressure is down to 40 - which is almost normal. Before surgery it was 78 but it was 40 at 10 months. I hope this gives hope to others who might be worried about their PA - it does take time. Dr Gillinov said could take years, but well, they tell you that so yo will be so excited when it doesn\'t. GOD bless all of you who are in the first months of recovery and ones who are counting down the days until it happens. Think ahead, there are so many of us out here who have been that road and who are living and doing and back to normal. Keep the faith and all of you are in my prayers. I know how much it meant to me to see someone post a year latter and share good news. I have one more grandchild, 11 now, and I lost my Rusty dog and it was hard but he managed to stay with me during my recovery for 6 months. Few months ago, we ended up with 2 toy poodles because we couldn\'t make up our mind - they are now 5 months and it is a good thing my heart valve has been fixed because they give me a workout every day. GOD Bless Emilyrae PS I posted a Picture of the pups in my photos

I don\'t know if there are alot of patients out there that are as nick picky as I am, but I also ask for copies of my echo (and other tests) not that I think I can totally understand everything on there, but my husband is retired Navy and we have experience in the medical people losing/misplacing tests. I have also educated myself over the years in things to look for (which some doctors don\'t like) but I figure it is my body and this has paid off for me. So I am asking any of you who might have your echos and have had to mitral valve surgery, could you take a look at your pulmonary pressure and post the readings. There are 2 or 3 of us (Carla and me at least) who would be very interested in knowing how your PA was affected before and after the surgery., Thanks

Last Friday went back to CCF for check up. Echo showed no leakage at all, I can come off coumadin Oct 31. Many of the nurses could hardly believe it had only been 9 weeks. I was disappointed with my pulmonary pressure - it was almost the same as before surgery. Dr. told me that sometime it takes 3 or 4 years to see a difference and even then we are dealing with mitral surgery fix wanting it to go down, yet as we age pulmonary pressure tends to go up. Mainly he said the repair arrested the pulmonary from getting worse. Told me not to worry about it - I was doing great, I\'m not sure that is my nature - I like to fix things, but I guess in this case, I am going to trust GOD to finish the job and trust in him that over the next year or so my pressure will go down. Carla, I am anxious to see what your doctor tells you. IF THERE IS ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE WHO KNOWS WHAT THEIR PULMONARY PRESSURE WAS BEFORE THE SURGERY AND WHAT IT IS AFTER, CARLA AND I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU.

One of the symptoms that I needed mitral valve repair was that I was showing high pulmonary hypertension associated with left heart disease - (coming from the heart) but not coming from the lungs - & I gather that is a good thing. Surgery is suppose to correct this problem. I had one echo 3 weeks after surgery (just to check on something else) and it showed that it had come down some, but not where I would like to see it. I go back to CCF in 2 weeks and I\'m sure they will give me a good look but I would like to know how many of my HVJ friends may have had pulmonary pressure with their mitral valve regurgitation. I think it can happend with the aortic valve too but is most common with the mitral valve I think. Would appreciate input. Thanks.

Went to my local cardiologist last Thursday and he said I\'m going great. Absolutely no leakage from mitral valve. Still doing rehab and have my moments of doing too much and then paying the price with being tired at the end of the day but the news was great and I want to thank all my friends, family and HVJ friends for their prayers and support. Special thanks to my friend from Australia (unsigned message) who sent me a message(before the surgery) that he had received a \"knowing\" that my surgery was going to be successful and safe. Most of all my thanksgiving goes to GOD who walked with me all the way. And I must not forget my husband Bill who who was the best support anybody could have - he has and is taking great care of me - I have had the best team watching over me.

I am doing very well,and progressing - still have some incision pain and tightness and tenderness, but I\'m really curious as to where others are 3 weeks away from their surgery. The first 10 days I was in complete sinus rhythm but the last 3/4 days I have had some irregular beats, pvc\'s I think. I know the doctors tells us the heart is remoulding and to expect things like this for up to 3 months but my history jumps makes it a little harder to be calm. Please continue to keep me in your prayers that I may let GOD continue my healing without any negative /interference from me. Mary Ann, Paul yours work so quickly - I must write you all of those GOD winks I got in the hospital as the results of your prayers.. Has anyone been bothered with irregular beats 3 weeks after surgery?

Sorry I have not posted since I have been home but I have been seeing local doctors to bring them up to date so they can take over my care. I brought my favorite nurse home with me, my husband Bill, and he is still doing an awesome job. and he takes his job very seriously. We left CCF with this big book of instructions (nukes love to read instruction manuals and follow the rules in them to the letter, well, he is doing that with me. Meds on time, rest on time, walk and exercise as prescribed (you get the picture). Thanks to all the prayers of you all, I think I am doing quite well - still not interested in eating (delicate stomach) and the incision pain still bothers me, I get tired easily & tightness in my incision/chest area when I try to do too much but when I think this is the second OHS for me, I feel so blessed to be on the other side of this advernture. Emilyrae

Got final checks this AM from the Heart people in the J Building at Cleveland Clinic, including EKG, Chest X-ray, and blood work. Will be leaving by plane tomorrow and with decent weather and Southwest Airlines, we are due to arrive in Norfolk by 4:30 PM. Our great friends, Pat and Pam Urello, are kind enough to pick us up at the airport. Will pick up journal entries from there on Sun. I am sure that Sat I will be too tired, plus I have some serious cuddling to do with Rusty our 5 lb poodle - missed him so much. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and well wishes - I can\'t tell you how much it has meant and still means to me. \"I have the inner strength to bounce back from any challenge. Knowing this, I move through my day with confidence and flexibility. Through the grace of GOD, I have the inner resolve and resilience to do whatever is mine to do\'\'. Not my words but I like the affirmation. Emilyrae

I am now strong enough and can adequately focus to make entries in the journal. Bill has done a marvelous job (as always) in keeping up this journal. Even after 24 years of marriage, he is still the best thing that has happened to me and I am so grateful to GOD for giving him to me. I am just kind of leaving things to Bill as far as medications go, etc on what I am supposed to do and when. He is a great nuke and attention to detail man, so I rest assured that I will make a faster than normal recovery because of him. Their are thirteen different meds that I have to take; some once a day, some twice, some three times a day and some four times a day. Some have to be taken with others. Some have to be taken after I have something in my stomach. I don\'t know how someone could do this alone with no loved one watching over them. I want to thank all of you for your prayers. The first 4 days were the hardest, while trying to get the nausea and pain under control. It was during this time that I felt the prayer cover that you all have provided me. I would say that I am doing as well as most, and better than some that had the surgery the same day as I did. Of course, this is certainly no walk in the park and I have a long road of recovery ahead – CCF considers 6 to 8 weeks the point that I could be ready for formal Cardiac Rehab. But I am ready for the next step, knowing that your prayers go with me. We are back at the Guesthouse now (last night was the first night we have been back here since my surgery last Tuesday – seven day ago. Bill stayed with me every night in the hospital on a bed that is formed by converting a bench seat into a single bed, about the size of a cot, although a bit more comfortable. So we had a hotel room siting here empty that we were paying for at the Guesthouse hotel. The staff at the Guesthouse is very accommodating - for instance, Bill asked them for a recliner for me to sleep in (as that seems to work best for the first few weeks, and we got it. When we arrived in the shuttle bus yesterday at the Guesthouse, the concierge got me a wheel chair to get from the lobby to the room and told us to keep the wheelchair for our use (Barry I am not using), and then extra pillows. Even though it is the most economical, you still get the same caring service. I need to be doing my walking like I was doing in the halls of the hospital for rehab. After arriving back over in the Guesthouse, we attempted to walk some outside last night, but it was so humid and still close to 90 degrees. So, we did not walk very far. We are going to catch the shuttle back to the hospital in a little while and do my walking therapy while inside the hospital and enjoy the air conditioned spaces. Bill wants to show me where he waited, where the ICU is, and other stuff that he has been telling me about, such as the roof top pavillion. Often times there are musicians playing in the lobby and there are several excellent places to eat in the hospital. So, we will take our time and rest when needed as I do my walking. It will be nice to enjoy some of the finer points of the hospital while not worrying about an upcoming surgery. Tomorrow we go over to CCF for some re-checks and tests to see if I can leave Sat. We do have plane tickets for Sat and, GOD willing, we will be headed back to Virginia – Pat/Pam hope to see you at the airport. Again everyone thanks for all your blessings and prayers. Emilyrae

Hello to all, Emilyrae started to make an entry in the journal, but quickly realized that the medications still have her in their grip. Too hard to focus on the screen and keyboard. Monday was a very good day. She did 3 sets of three laps around the halls. Tuesday has been even better. She did three laps on first effort. Three laps later in the morning, four in the early afternoon, and six in the late afternoon. That\'s a total of 16 laps. Her heart rate has slowly lowered to an absolutely normal rate, varying between 79 BPM and 90 BPM during the day. Depends on how close it has been since she took the rate control meds. No arrhythmias seen today. The plan is she will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday). Our plan is to go across the street and stay at one of the hospital\'s hotels and look at her progress from there on Thursday and Friday. Friday, she will have a follow up check out to take a look at the incisions and we plan to catch our Saturday flight about 1215 to head back to Norfolk/Virginia Beach. I hope and expect that Emilyrae will be back on line tomorrow. Bill

Last night, Saturday, is the first night since the surgery that went smoothly. We almost got the pain medicine on the schedule that we agreed upon last night at around 8:00PM. It was supposed to be some pain meds at 10:30 PM, the other one at 1:30 AM, then 4:30 AM, then 7:30 AM. They didn\'t wake her for the meds at 4:30 AM. Luckily I woke up after 5:00 AM and checked and got the nurse to come and give them about 40 minutes late. That did not cause her extra pain, but now we have to work at getting on the planned times again for tonight. We realize we are not the only patients on the floor and others have bigger problems than Emilyrae does, so we are trying to keep the nurses support with tactful complaining, vice getting outright mad. I see a change in Emilyrae\'s attitude which is a change in the right direction. Instead of worrying so much about whether her progress is on track, she is now showing some determination and some anger (I\'ll show them attitude). An example of this is that she is supposed to blow in the breathing pipe10 times an hour. When we get to 10, she says let\'s do 5 more. They want her to walk around the rectangular hall in our wing as much as the patient can do. She was able to do most of a lap yesterday. She did 3 laps after breakfast this morning and then did 3 more laps before lunch, at a faster pace. She is taking a nap now, but plans to do two more sets of three laps later today. I told her we need to schedule it around the Red Sox-Tampa Bay baseball game that is on ESPN tonight at 8:00 PM. A number of you have made comments back to her in her guestbook section of the journal. I am reading each of those to her. Paul, she did get a chuckle about the recipe you sent. And it was nice to hear from you Cindi now that you are back from your camping trip. I told Emilyrae that I look forward to her resuming entries in the journal. Maybe in a few more days. Thanks to all for your encouragement and prayers. Bill

We had some setbacks today and I think they started by not staying ahead of pain. Emilyrae has been alternating two pain meds, with one, Vicodin, authorized at six hour intervals and Ultram (not sure of spelling) in between the Vicodin. She woke up at 3:15 AM and was in a lot of pain. It had been 7 (plus) hours since her last pain medicine. Someone decided that since she was sleeping well, they would not disturb her. That was a big mistake. She took a Vicodin after she woke, but it took about 30 minutes to take effect. In the meantime, her pain and anxiety caused her heart rate to increase from the mid 90s to between 110 and 120, which caused more anxiety. By 09:00 AM it had gotten worse so that the rate was higher than 120 and unstable, sometimes going into Atrial Fib and sometimes resulting in very high (rapid) heart beats. Of course this caused more anxiety. We had been cautioned that abnormal heart rhythms may occur and that in most cases they will only be temporary conditions. But, it was still very difficult for Emilyrae seeing it happen. The nurse gave her a drug that was designed to lower heart rate, but it was not helping. The same drug could be given in liquid form in a stronger dose in the IV. They had hesitated to go that route because they did not want to risk over correcting and end up with her heart rate being too low. After this going on for 1.5 hours, they went ahead and carefully gave a liquid dose into the IV. Within 10 minutes the heart rate stabilized and lowered to between 110 and 100. We did two walks around the ward hallways today. While we were resting at a day room during one of the walks, we met a lady who had also had heart valve surgery on the same day Emilyrae did. They exchanged talk on what kind of problems each was having in their recovery in these immediate days just after surgery. It was therapeutic for Emilyrae to be able to chat about this with someone else and to hear the other person\'s problems. So for those of you that are facing surgery in the future, when you can walk in the halls, think about exchanging stories with the other heart valve patients. I think it will help you accept the problems you are having to deal with when you realize you are not alone. Several people, including Emilyrae\'s special angel Mary Ann, called and gave extra prayers to help Emilyrae get through this morning. The prayers worked. As the day comes to an end, she is feeling much better. Bill

Today, Friday, is Emilyrae\'s third full day in the stepdown unit. Each patient I have seen in the area of her room has really responded at different recovery speeds. I met several other families on Tuesday as we waited in the same family waiting room while our loved ones were undergoing heart surgery. At that time we briefly exchanged some info on what relative was in for surgery and what type of problem was going to be addressed. As I see the other patients in the hall, they are making recovery at very different speeds. Emilyrae\'s progress appears to me to be about average. On her third day here, she is moving very slowly as she walks about three doors down the hall and then turns around and comes back to the room, using the pole from which oxygen and other stuff hang, while using my arm to steady her. Some patients were moving along while holding a pole to steady them without anyone assisting them. One patient was walking down the hall at a pretty good pace with no support and I was thinking that he must not have had open heart surgery. I asked him and he had aortic valve repair three days ago. So each patient is going to need different amounts of time to progress back to normal operations. Emilyrae did 4 short walks today. They give each patient a tube to blow into and have told them to blow 10 times each hour. This helps minimize the chance of fluid build up in the lungs. I stay busy just trying to keep up with this assignment. I don\'t know how the other patients keep up with this if they don\'t have someone from family here to help. Emilyrae has continued to struggle with nausea which makes it difficult for her to eat much. We shifted from one pain drug today, Percocet, to another one, Vicodin, to see if that helps. We will see how it goes tomorrow. One of Dr. Gillinov\'s associates stopped by about 7:00 AM this morning to see how she was doing. Later, about 0830, Dr. Gillinov stopped by and it was great for her to get his reassurance that things were going well. As he left, he said matter of factly: \"I\'m off to surgery\". Late in the morning another one of his associates stopped by. A person from cardiac respiratory therapy stopped by this afternoon and took her for one of the 4 short walks she did today. So there has been plenty of support and checking in on her here at CCF. Bill

I am just about caught up to present situation here for Emilyrae. The staff here at Cleveland Clinic has been outstanding. Regardless of how great they are, I want to advise those with surgery in the future that they should think about having a family advocate, or several that can share duties on watching and recording what is happening. The medical staff obviously has to turn over as the day goes on. Sometimes they had 8-hour shifts and other times they had 12-hour shifts. And the person that had the day shift yesterday was not necessarily the same person that had the day shift today. Sometimes I would be the one to inform the current nurse on how Emilyrae responded to various meds yesterday. Some of this just seemed natural to me. After spending 30 years in the U.S. Navy as a submarine officer, we learned how to watch meters and gages and look and evaluate trends that we saw. But you don\'t have to be a nuke, to be an effective family advocate for your loved one. You just need to keep up with how they are responding to various medicines and treatments. Emilyrae\'s first 24 hours in the step down unit have not been easy. Two difficult balancing acts needed to be addressed. One was the balancing act between having enough pain medicine to reduce the pain adequately while not causing nausea. This was not solved for much of these first 24 hours in the step-down unit. As a result, she did not eat or drink much because she would be nauseous. As a result, her fluid intake was lower than desired and her food intake was low so she was very weak. This delayed her being able to begin walking the halls. It is important that the patient gets up sooner than later so that fluid does not build up in the lungs. I think she has been able to stay ahead of the fluid build-up because she has been very good at blowing into the breathing device specifically there for this purpose. The other balancing act was the one that also existed in the ICU: low blood pressure versus fast heart rate. Her low blood pressure was solved by giving her a bag of NaCl fluid through the IV. Control of her pain was finally obtained late today by alternating two pain meds and two anti-nausea meds. In other words, one pain med could only be given at six-hour intervals. Same for the nausea meds. They selected another pain med and another nausea med that could be given between the six-hour intervals. . So, as we end this day, she has reached reasonable comfort as far as pain and has also not had significant nausea for about 8 hours now. It could be that this has been a very complicated puzzle to solve because it may have been really caused by the amount of anesthesia that still remained in her body from the surgery. Maybe this anesthesia was reduced today as she drank more fluids. We probably won\'t really solve what the exact cause of her nausea was today, but I see that she is resting comfortably now ( about 10:30 PM). In spite of the problems we had to address today, she accomplished some key things. She got out of bed and spent a good part of the day sitting upright in a chair. She blew into that tube 10 times almost every hour as they wanted her to do and she finally got out of bed and walked a small ways down the hall. We hope that tomorrow starts out where today ended. Hope all this detail helps those of you that expect surgery in the future. Bill

In my last update, I said Emilyrae had been in ICU and had the breathing tube in for 6 hours. Once she got past that, the doctor and nurses in ICU had to find the right solution to get her blood pressure where they wanted it. She normally has the benefit of having a nice low blood pressure because she takes such good care of her health. The problem is that in this case her blood pressure was lower than her normal 105/60. At the same time her heart rate was over 90 BPM. So they would normally give some meds to lower the heart rate, but this would have lowered her blood pressure and they did not want it to go any lower. So this took time to work through. She also had to work through some chest pain and nausea and then they had to remove the various chest drain tubes. She had a very small tube going into the side of her neck which went into the heart to give the doctors a view of pressures in the chambers of the heart. There was another small tube that went into an arterial line to get oxygenated blood samples. These all were removed before she left the ICU. They left in some wires that were installed in case she needs to be temporarily hooked up to a pace maker. So far, there is no need to do this. When I asked, I was told they would use the pacemaker if the heart rate gets to slow. During the day she was in ICU, the hospital conducted training for those of us that wanted it on post surgery care, including topics like the prescriptions she would be getting, precautions for flying back for those of us that had to fly, best way to take a shower and protect the incision. On our flights back to Virginia, in about 9 days if all goes well, she will need to get up once an hour and walk the aisle to protect against any blood clots. I hope that we don\'t run into bad weather and have the seat belt sign on for the whole trip. We may get into an argument with the flight attendant when we tell them that she has to get up and move around. About 6:00 PM the day after surgery, July 13th, we moved from ICU to the step down unit. We thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and words of encouragement. They have been a source of strength for her. Please keep it up. Thanks, Bill

Here is Part 2 on how things went on surgery day. About 9:00 AM on the morning of surgery my beeper went off again. This time the beeper screen read “Report to the front desk for family information session”. The senior Nurse for Cardiac surgery took all family members into a classroom and talked to us for about an hour and a half. She explained when we would get updates on the surgery. She also educated us on what the purpose was of each tube or wire that was going to be hanging from the patient after surgery. She gave us a good discussion of what we would see in the ICU so we would know what to expect. She explained how the air tube is held in place by a balloon approach. She informed us that there were 14 cardiothoracic surgeries in progress and there would be 24 for the day. She explained the difference between a 1ST open heart surgery and a re-do, which is any additional open heart surgery. She explained to the group that they would only update one person per family and that the family had to fill out a form identifying who the family point of contact was going to be. She told us we would be informed when the surgeons commenced the first incision into the patient. We would get a report when they had arrived at the heart and were commencing major heart work. She said we would get notice when the heart surgeon had completed his work and when we should report to an area to meet the heart surgeon for him to tell the family how the surgery went and what was accomplished. As she predicted, I got my notice when they began the first incision. This occurred about 0830. This senior nurse was also getting all of these reports for all 14 surgeries that were in progress. She let me know that they had reached the heart and were beginning major heart work within 3 minutes after they had begun heart work. I got the beeper message that major heart work was complete and it told me where to go to meet with the heart surgeon. I was a bit concerned because I thought I got this message much sooner than I expected. We had been told that an open heart surgery would normally take between 4 and 6 hours. A re-do surgery (a second or more) would take 6 to 8 hours. It takes longer if it is a follow-on surgery partly because of having to deal with scar tissue from the first surgery. So, as I walked to the consulting room to meet the doctor I wondered if it had gone well and that is why it went faster or if the Doctor found something he did not expect and if that caused him to terminate the operation early. When the doctor came in, it was good news. Things went well. He told me that he was successful in repairing her Mitral valve. He created some new chords to tighten ones that had elongated over time and put in a ring at the base. He ran two echo tests on her before she left the operating room to confirm that his repair efforts were successful. While in there, he checked condition of her other valves and conducted portions of the Maze procedure (used to correct atrial fib in patients having that problem) that were not able to be completed during AFIB ablations that had been conducted several years ealier. Although Cleveland Clinic had corrected her AFIB several years ago without getting to this one region of the heart, Dr. Gillinov finished this part of the procedure since he had access to it. The nurse that had educated us in the morning had told us that it would be about 2 hours from when the Doctor finished telling us what had been done until we could see our loved one in the ICU. About one hour would be used to finish up things in the operating room and about one hour needed to settle the patient into the ICU. In my case, it was about 3.5 hours between when I finished meeting with the doctor and when they allowed me to see Emilyrae in the ICU. When I went in to see her in the ICU, she still had the breathing tube down her throat and was totally under. The nurse had told us earlier in the day that some would still have the tube in and others might have it removed. The ICU team has to reach a balance between lowering the anesthesia enough to allow the patient to take control of their own breathing and to keep enough anesthesia to control the pain. They had trouble with this balance on Emilyrae and, as a result, she had the tube in for about 6 hours in the ICU. Much longer than expected. She was under for a good part of it. Not only did she have to be controlling her own breathing to remove the tube, but the blood test results had to show enough oxygen and a low enough reading of CO2. We felt a lot better when that tube was finally removed. In another entry in Emilyrae\'s jounal, our daughter Stacy had commented that the Nuke had control of the journal and now you would get all the details. So, I did not want to let Stacy down so I gave many details, but I also left out many. Thanks for your continued prayers. I am learning that their is plenty of opportunity for difficulty in the ICU and the step down unit. Will update on these topics in next entry. Bill

As I said in my last entry earlier tonight, Emilyrae has made it through the operation with excellent success. For those of you who are thinking about going forward with a similar operation or have one scheduled, I\'ll give some discussion of how the day of surgery went in hopes of helping you with expectations. She checked in for the operation as directed at 5:15 AM Tuesday morning. When she checked in, they gave me a beeper that had a screen on it, on which they would send me messages during the day. We waited in the waiting area together for about 30 minutes. Then they called her back to get changed into a hospital gown. About 40 minutes later, around 6:30 AM, they called me back to be with her until they were ready to roll her to the operating room. I visited with her for about 20 minutes. During that time, a Chaplain was going from one patient to another in each\'s private waiting area asking if the patient desired his assistance. Nothing pushy, just there for those that desired his assistance. When they were ready to roll her to the operating room, they handed me a bag of her personal possessions (clothes, etc). She went one way to the operating room and I went the other way to the family waiting area. She still had one item with her, an MP3 player for her use to wear and listen to music, meditation or whatever she had recorded on it. The Cleveland Clinic has music and discussion on their web site \"Cleveland Clinic Guided Imagery for Surgery\". This discussion and music is prepared to help the patient get in the best frame of mind for the surgery. They explained to me that she would be allowed to listen to the MP3 player until she got the anesthesia. Around 09:15 AM, my beeper went off, which alarmed me. Why get a beep so soon? When I read the message, it said report to the check in desk to pick up patient\'s possessions. When I got to the desk, they handed me her MP3 player, which had been bagged and tagged and delivered to me. As I sat in the family waiting area, I noticed a lot of people there and wondered how many were having open heart surgery that morning at this hospital. In part 2, I will discuss how many had open heart surgery yesterday at this hospital, how often I got updates during the operation and what training they provided family members. Emilyrae has drifted off to sleep, so I am going to catch a nap as well, as I will stay in the room with her through the night tonight. Will provide Part 2 of the surgery day in my update tomorrow. Bill

To Everyone, Sorry I have not updated before now. Emilyrae was in intensive care unit all day Tuesday after surgery and until about 6:00 PM today, Wednesday, when they moved her to the step down unit. They would not let me use a cell phone or laptop in the ICU and I spent most time right by her bed. I will update again a little later after I run a few errands. In summary, things went well during the surgery. Dr. Gillinov declares the repair of her Mitral valve a solid success. ICU went as expected. She has been a good patient. Will fill in some details shortly. Thank you all for your prayers. Bill