Post surgery

Surgery overall went well. They got the graft in as much as they needed to, from the heart down to the groin.  After the groin, the dissection looked good once the blood flow improved from the surgery.  The surgeon feels really good about it.

He showed us pictures – where the dissection was, it bulges out and caused the blood to flow into the wrong areas. The “after” pictures show the huge difference in how the blood can flow properly. They created two bypasses around the aorta for the worst parts. The graft is called an Endolumenal graft.

Right after the surgery his blood pressure spiked again. He was already on two blood pressure medications, but had to give him nitroglycerine and another blood pressure medication.  It still would not go down to normal.  So they had to put him under again.  Which required that the breathing tube get put back in (intubated), which required medication to paralyze him in order to intubate.

Usually as the patient wakes up, they ask them to move their legs because paraplegia is a possible side effect.  Dad’s paralysis from the medication was taking a long time to wear off, so they took him to get a CT scan to see if there is any pressure on the spine.  *We just heard the results – the CT scan looked clear – so no lumbar drain at this point.

His body has gone through such trauma that there are several things to watch for in the next little while:
·      Kidney problems - a main concern because of the lack of oxygen that occurred to the kidneys, the dye they had to inject during the surgery.
·      Paraplegia
·      There are weaknesses in the aortic vein in the spots where veins come off for the different organs.  Right now there not grafts developed to put into those areas.  There should be some within the next few years, but not right now.  So, those could have problems potentially, but right now they look good and it looks like there are no leaks.

He will be in the hospital for 7-10 days mostly because they are trying to get the blood pressure under control. The doctor said it is like a juggling act trying to figure out which medication to be on. Dad will be on three different medications but later he may go down to 2 depending on how he does. He has a condition where his blood pressure spikes really quickly compared to what is normal. It jumps up immediately in response to stress that would normally cause other’s blood pressure to slowly rise.  The doctor said that this condition will be the most important to control.

The doctor was optimistic that he might be able to return to work in 3-6 months.  We don’t feel so optimistic about that fact.   Mild exercise is an option, but never any intense exercise.