The Bison is On the Move!

This post contains links that, if you click on them and make a purchase, will earn me money. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. . Regardless, I only recommend products or services that I believe will be good for my readers. Thanks for helping me continue to produce great content!

Aslan isn’t the only one.

Or, to mix a metaphor, something I have NEVER been shy about doing, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride Rolls On.

I don’t think I’m ready to recount the whole tale yet, but I want to record it all, truly, I do, in its entirety.

Suffice it to say that on Wednesday, we were given a surgery date of Friday morning. Again, the reason for the delay was that they were waiting for his blood clotting levels to normalize from the dose of Plavix he was given in the ER. On Thursday night at 9:30 PM, after spending all day gearing up and making phone calls to inform everyone of the imminent surgery,  our surgeon’s nurse practitioner came to inform us that our doctor had an emergency surgery the following day that would likely take all day, and the Big Bison’s surgery had been bumped to Monday.

Our initial reaction was one of “Really? Really??? Are you kidding me??????” A whole week waiting in the hospital? (And yes, it really was a necessary thing to be IN the hospital. My Bison had two blockages in his one main artery, one blocking 95% and one blocking 99% of the blood flow in that artery.) What are you going to do? You’re kind of at their mercy. Then, the night nurse came in and asked us, “Is the doctor delaying because of a transplant? You know he does transplants, right?” Well, no, we didn’t know. So, then, our thoughts went to the family of someone so sick that they might need an all-day surgery, possibly a transplant. And THEN, our thoughts were directed to the family of the donor, who would  have lost THEIR special someone – sweetheart, husband or wife, son, or daughter – yet who were willing to give up that heart that someone else might live, and it was kind of hard to get TOO bent out of shape over 3 more days of waiting in the hospital.

I went to bed thinking, “Well, at least I don’t have to face my husband having surgery tomorrow.”

At 6:00 AM, I was awakened from a DEEP sleep by the jangling of the phone. It was my Bison. “Sooze, the doc is on the phone with the nurse out in the hall, and he says the emergency surgery was canceled, and he wants to know if we want to go ahead.”

CrimeinItly!!!

We had just called everyone and their dog a second time to cancel the surgery, and now? NOW???

Hey…in the words of my cousin, Jeff….”It’s GO time!”

So, I woke up my sleeping children, and my Bison’s sister, and her friend, and said: “Time to go to the hospital – surgery is a go!” What a way to wake up! 

Friday morning, at 9:46 AM, they sliced into my husband’s chest. They chose a minimally invasive technique that is made with an incision under the left nipple, where they spread the ribs apart, and shift and move stuff around till they get to the left mammary artery. This they graft into the left atrial descending artery. Stop and think about that for a minute. Can you even begin to imagine someone having sharp instruments that cut and cauterize inside your chest, shifting your vital organs, rerouting your bloodflow, and handling your HEART???

My mind absolutely boggles at the thought!!!! And yet, that’s exactly what they did to my sweet baby. God, how I love that man.

When the two became one, in our case, my heart was joined to his, and when they cut, and burned, and shifted, and rerouted HIS heart, I think, spiritually, they went rooting around inside of me as well. I have felt a few times this week like someone has absolutely pulled the blanket right out from underneath my picnic, leaving me stunned, a bit dazed, lying flat on my back, gazing up at the sky, going, “What just happened???”

OK, I’m going to skip a lot of the story, and cut to the chase, because I have to get upstairs to see him as soon as he gets to his room.

The surgery went WELL. He went to the Critical Care Unit, and stayed there for 24 hours, and despite a tremendous amount of pain, they feel like he is ready to be moved to the Post Op side of the Cardiac floor. So, that’s why I said he’s on the move. But he’s not alone, for Aslan, too, is on the move, with him, every step of the way. (Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe reference).

I’m not proud of the caliber of this post…it ought to be better crafted, more fine tuned. But my heart is getting moved to his new room, and I’ve got to go spend some time with him. Thank you for your prayers on his behalf. We felt them! God was merciful, not because we deserve it. I don’t really know why. But we’re humbled, and we’re grateful.

Love,

image  from here