Sunny's Posts

Today is Saturday & finally feel as if out of the woods...long stay in ICU was due to 2 drugs that they used to help heart beat on it's own. Long, slow process of slowly lowering dose so my heart would not be stressed with a job it couldn't do on it's own.stressed.My heart was in more trouble than I ever realized. OHSU is a world unto itself. My team was huge and consisted of very skilled cardiologists. I'm glad I didn't need a bypass & so happy they could do a maze. That, plus the Left atrial appendage removal, will all help my heart function improve.The other side of that equation is that the heart got a huge hit & shook up pretty good!! I am shocked at how weak I am & how vulnerable that feels.The walks everyone speaks of are for me mini- marathons of moving slowly, laboriously through space as I gasp my way past one or two rooms on my left. They are planning on my attending cardiac rehab in a few weeks.... maybe they have a tricycle for me. LOL! Thanks for all the comments& love & prayer expressed. I'm Finally able to sit up & read them for myself & smile as I treasure each of you in my heart.... my new heart!

hello there. i'm kerry, one of sunny's daughters. mom wanted me to update you on how things went today. : ) the surgery took about 4.5 hours and was very successful. dr. slater did the maze and was able to repair the mitral valve, so we were thrilled to not have a valve replacement! he decided NOT to repair the leaky tricuspid valve because the leads from her pacemaker were right there & it could have caused more trouble than it was worth to mess with it. he also decided NOT to do the bypass after all. she held up very well throughout the surgery & was very, very sleepy afterwards for about 4 hours. we finally got the breathing tube out & got her all cleaned up around 8pm tonight. by then it was time for more pain killers and then she drifted off to sleep again. my sister tracy arrived from california around 9:15pm & mom was able to wake up enough to say hi and how was your trip & then she fell back asleep. her heart rate & blood pressure are very stable and the entire team at OHSU has just been fabulous. thank you for your love & support - i know mom appreciates it so very much!