Larry's Guestbook

Crusher, on a lark I googled you to see where you are since it's been a while since we last talked(LOL). Saw this valve surgery thing and thought I'd wish you the best! Pseudo.

Are you still checking this blog? I am pleased to hear of your quick recovery....but I wasn\'t really worried. I know that only the good die young. (just kidding) What I meant to say is that my prayers paid off. Sending you a sunny day, Michelle(Mickey)

Glad your doing well, I\'m waiting to come see you cuz I feel bad drinking your bud light in front of you so I\'m goin to wait till you can drink that crap you drink! Love ya Brah!!!

Hi Larry, pleased to hear that you\'re home again. Take it easy mate! Hoping that you\'ll be feeling a bit more comfortable each day as your body heals. Love and hugs, Julie

I can\'t believe you are home already. So happy the surgery was a success! Take it easy & be a good patient for Kathy. :) Everyone has been asking about you at work.

Hey Larry, So glad to hear you\'re doing well. Can\'t wait to meet \'the new improved Larry Conant\'. We\'re thinking of dropping in Thursday after work if that\'s o.k. If you can let us know. Jeannine

Good Morning Everyone, Spent most of the day with Dad yesterday. He\'s doing fantastic. He has checked off 2 of the lovely body functions that have to happen before he leaves-he\'s peed and farted. If you\'ve never h ad surgery with heavy anesthesia, you may not know how great and exciting this really is. :) Your bowels, digestion being one of the least important functions in an emergency, are the last to wake up and start working properly after anesthesia. He farted yesterday and that means his bowels are waking up, a very good sign, and now we get to wait and celebrate when he poops! Just like being a toddler all over again. After having a catheter in for a couple days it becomes very difficult to pee, it took him a while and he was scared they would put the catheter back in, but he managed to pee just in the nick of time. He\'s now peeing on his own and easily. :) Didn\'t you want to know all this? Less gross, but equally wonderful things: He\'s eating solid food, had a good full dinner the last 2 nights, if you can imagine, he doesn\'t have much of an appetite so he only picked at his lunch, I wasn\'t there for breakfast, but I think he ate decently then. He also went for 2 walks yesterday. One of them he walked all the way to the waiting room and came to get us. I wasn\'t given the distance of his walks this time, but we were quite pleased. He\'s quite tired during the day and takes frequent naps. And he was extremely tired last night when we left. He had a hard night sleeping between Saturday and Sunday, it\'s still difficult to breath, especially while laying down, so he went back on oxygen for a little while. He also went into afibrillation, not the severe type on ER that requires shocking, just enough to make him feel funny and for the nurses to give him some meds. That\'s a very common side effect of this surgery. It should only happen as the heart works to repair itself and with the medication it was gone and the nurses (including Artie, Caysea\'s husband) were pleased. Artie also told me something that made a lot of sense-if you break your arm, they put it in a cast and you have to rest it, not use if for a while, if you break your heart, you have to keep using it while it gets better, so it\'s going to be more stressed out and show signs with things like higher heart rate, afibrillation, and tiredness. We are all still very pleased with the progress and feel good. Jack (his brother), Dave (my partner), Caysea, and Artie all went back home yesterday. I will be here until midday tomorrow. Thank you all for your messages, thoughts, and visits. We all appreciate knowing how much he is cared about. I must start my day so I can get to the hospital. Have a good one. Coral

Hi Larry Pleased to read Coral\'s notes that you\'re doing well. We\'re thinking of you in Oz and hope you progress really well. Love from The Koesslers xx

Larry, It was good to see you this evening. Even more so now that you are out of ICU. Enjoyed seeing all the family there as well. But I am truly surprised at the lengths you will go to get John to come and visit. Get well and don\'t do this again... Bob(by) Brown

Hi Everyone, Dad\'s doing great. Sorry I didn\'t post any more updates yesterday. Dad came out of surgery as expected. We saw him multiple times yesterday and he was doing great. He was groggy but talking and coherent-even making jokes with the nurses. Today he\'s doing even better. He is much more alert and got to go for a walk. He walked a whole 330 feet, quite an achievement. Everyone says he\'s doing great and should be moving through all the stages quickly. I think he will move out of the ICU as soon as they can find him a bed in the \"step down\" unit. That\'s the unit you go to after you graduate out of ICU. He might get out of the ICU anytime now, but almost definitely by tomorrow. At this point, Dad has met all the requirement to get out of ICU, but they haven\'t made space for him in step down. We have pictures, but I haven\'t figured out how to log-in to his account to upload the pictures. He\'s doing great! Thanks for all your support. Coral

Hi Friends and Family, Thanks for thinking of Dad and for checking in on him here. He is currently in surgery and our last update was that they had taken his valve out and were stitching in the replacement valve. They said everything was going well and there was nothing unexpected. I don\'t know much more, but we are all feeling good about the progress. We are hoping for him to be out of surgery soon and that we\'ll be able to see him within a couple hours. Love, Coral

Hi buddy, I know all will go great you are in great shape and very healthy, I have been doing some research on this type of surgery and it won\'t be long and you will be back home, our prayers are with you and I will keep in touch with kathy tracking your progress, see you soon,we love ya!!!!

Hello Larry, Just thought I\'d touch base and let you know you are on my mind... Hope you are feeling the peace and strength we are sending your way. Best wishes.... Looking forward to hearing from you and getting together as soon as you feel up to it! :) Have a wonderful day! Sandy

Hey Larry, I am so sorry to here about your health. At this moment my sister and I are at barnes hospital with my mom. She had surgery Friday. She had an anerism above her bladder. She had to go back in surgery in the middle of the night. All is better. When is your surgery? Jeanne brown schober

Hi Larry and welcome. My surgery is scheduled for April 21, Dr. Marc Gillanov at the Cleveland Clinic. I have prolapse of the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve which is a difficult repair, but am still hoping for a repair. I have done extensive research - really extensive - and I am confident if a repair can be accomplished Dr. Gillanov can do it. I understand your apprehension, nervousness and anxiety. At first I was overwhelmed with anxiety, but with the use of pre-surgery anti-anxiety and relaxation CDs I am doing much better. I wish you the very best. Ruth Howell Maine

Keep your chin up you are a really stong person and we are looking forward to you coming through this better than ever. You will be in my thoughts and prayers. Luv ya, Jan