Slim's Obituary and Posting from Ryan

James (Slim) Albert Cooper 1941 ~ 2011 Our beloved husband, father,
grandfather and friend to all who knew him passed away on Feb. 14, 2011 due to
complications following bypass surgery.

Jim was born on Jan. 7, 1941 to Lola Vernell Draper and Albert Vivian Cooper in
Genola, Utah. He was the seventh of eleven children, six of whom survive him.
He graduated from Payson High School, after which he served an LDS mission to
the East Central States Mission. He married Judy Penrod in the Manti Temple on
6 Sept. 1963. Jim spent his life touching the lives of many people over the
course of his 33 years as a teacher, assistant principal, and administrator
with the Murray School District. In retirement Jim found joy in serving
others, and was often found knee-deep in a remodeling project somewhere. A man
who spurned attention and limelight, he most-often served in quiet and often
unknown ways, and was an example of Christ-like service. He will be loved and
missed by all who knew him.

Jim is survived by his wife, Judy; four children, Jaren (Angie), Dori (Luis)
Ribeiro, Ryan, and Braden (Angie); and seven grandchildren; Kyleigh, Emma,
Hannah, Brie, Daniel, Kate and Taylor. A viewing will be held on Sat. Feb 19
from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Stake Center located on 6180 So. Glenoaks
Street (855 East). Following the viewing, family and friends may join us at a
graveside service at the Murray City Cemetery (5490 So. Vine Street).

Please no flowers. If you would like to make a donation in his name please
consider the Kennecott Nature Center in Murray via Murray School District or
the LDS Humanitarian Fund.

 

Thanks.

Of all the trips I have made home from abroad, this was by far the longest and most difficult journey I have made, knowing what awaited once I landed.  Until I actually landed, I could still pretend that Slim would be there to pick me up at the airport as he has every time I have visited all these years I have been away.  One of the few constants in my life has been that Slim will pick me up at the airport, and we will probably have a project to do together once we got home.  We always thought ourselves handy, and believed we could give Bob Villa and Norm Abrams a run for their money.  We will never get the chance to find out now…lucky for them!   

I know that many of you have spoken with Jaren, Dori and/or Braden over the course of the past several weeks and have expressed your support and shared your thoughts.  I wanted to take this occasion to share the gratitude I feel in my heart for the love and support, and for each and every one of your prayers.  I know, having had to deal with much of this from abroad, that all of it has helped immensely, and our family is stronger today because of it.   We know the impact Slim has had in our lives, but it has been uplifting to hear of the impact he has had in the lives of others.  He really did not like any kind of limelight or attention, preferring instead to quietly serve where he could.  His request for a simple graveside service is a reflection of this; he always believed life should be celebrated while living.

My thanks and gratitude go out to each of you.  The world, or at least our little corner of it, is a better place because he has been in our lives.

Ryan

Saturday Services

We are beginning to make the arrangements for Slim's memorial service.  Many of you may have heard Slim say that when he died all he really wanted was a grave side service.  We are trying to respect his wishes as much as we can. Because of this, we will not be having a formal funeral. We will have a viewing on Saturday, February 19th from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Stake Center located on 6180 So. Glenoaks Street (855 East). Following the viewing, family and friends may join us at the graveside service at the Murray City Cemetery (5490 So. Vine Street).

Please no flowers. If you would like to make a donation in his name please consider LDS Humanitarian Fund or Kennecott Nature Center in Murray.

The end of a long battle... The beginning of a new day

I have been wondering just what to say about this all night. Now that the sun is beginning to rise again, I thought it best to simply state what happened.  So here are the events of last night.  At about 8:30 p.m. the doctor came out and said that they had placed another stint in one of the arteries of his heart. This seemed to help his heart work better.  They were working on some issues with getting his blood pressure regulated.  They had given him some medication to help this out.  From this point the hope and plan was to let him stay sedated and progress as I had previously posted.

We came home to rest as we would not be able to see him for a while.  I called the hospital around 10 pm to get an update.  They said that we needed to come in at the doctors request.  We met as a family with the doctor who said that he was losing the battle.  Every time his BP would drop they would up the medication to help stabilize it.  And even when they were able to stabilize the BP it was at an extremely low level.  There was nothing more that they could do for him....... The infection had gone septic and Slim could no longer fight it.

Slim was put under anesthesia for the initial surgery yesterday some time around 2 PM. From that time on he was sedated.  He never woke up.....At 10:45 pm we turned off life support and let him quietly return home to his Heaven Family..... We will miss him dearly and the house already feels emptier without him....


Judy was grateful to have the last few days with him.  That one on one time was priceless to her. 

As a family we would like to thank you for all your love, support and prayers.


The James A Cooper family lives on in each of us and in his posterity.

Thanks again for all your support in so many ways....

Slim is out of surgery

We met with the doctor at around 5:35 PM  He explained that they removed about 300 cc's of "murky" fluid from around the pericardial sac, which probably means there was some infection.  They have also placed a tube into both sides of his chest and one in the incision site.  The left chest tube has already drained out 1000 cc's of clear fluid.  They left his chest wound open and have covered it with a special dressing to protect the open wound.  They will have the wound care team place a wound vac back on this site.  The intent of this  wound vac is to help draw out any residual fluid that may have infection.

He will be in the ICU for at least the next 3-4 days. (if all goes well)  He is intubated to help with his breathing while they keep his chest open.  Because of this, he will be sedated for most, if not all of this time.  At the end of the 3-4 days they hope to go back in and close up his chest. We have not been able to see him yet as they are getting him set up again in one of the ICU rooms.

UPDATE:
Around 6:30 pm the doctor came back out to say that Slim's having some additional complications.  His left ventricle is not working.  They have taken him down to the cath lab to try and put a stint into one of the bypass grafts that doesn't appear to be working.  Looks like it will be a long night....


Jaren

In Surgery

Slim is currently in surgery. He went in around 1:30 this afternoon. Jaren, Dori, Braden and his wife are with Judy at the hospital waiting. No word yet.

Will post as soon as we are updated from the surgeon.
Angie

Monday morning update.

The doctors just did their morning rounding and gave mom an update.

WBC  is back up to 21,000
INR is around 2.4 (not changing despite interventions to help this return to normal)
Echo- Pericardial sac around the heart looks like it is double the size it should be.... meaning too much fluid etc. is around the heart.

They really would prefer to wait unitl the INR is lower, but they don't think they can wait any longer.  The plan is to still go forward with the surgery later today.

Jaren

Sunday Feb 13th- We have restarted the Blog

Since Slim continues to have complications from his heart attack and bypass surgery we have decided to reinstate the blog. 

Slim entered the hospital for the 3^rd time since his heart attack on Jan 16^th.  The last two admits have been as a result of complications from getting an infection.  The most recent readmission (Wed. Feb. 9^th) was also due to some early stage kidney failure.

The first sign of an infection came while he was home recovering two weeks ago. Mom and I began to notice some increased swelling and redness to his left leg.  It was located at the incision site of where they took the vein used to make the grafts for his bypass.  He was admitted for five days and in the end they drained out one pocket of infection and put a wound vac on the incision site.   Slim probably should have stayed in the hospital at least another day so they could monitor his infection and other lab tests better.  However, he was pretty anxious to get out and be home where he felt more comfortable. The hospital set him up with out-patient infusion therapy going morning and evenings to get the needed antibiotics. A day and a half later he was again re admitted. The White Blood Count (WBC) score had gone up again to 21,000, which indicated that the infection was getting worse.  The lab work also indicated that his kidneys were not doing well. He also continues to have fluid around and or in his left lung area.

As they were in the process of admitting him into the hospital they were assessing his dressing on his chest and noticed some infectious fluid coming out of his chest incision site.  They had the physical therapist that works with wounds come in and set up a wound vac on this site as well.  They also reexamined his leg and noticed some tunneling had occurred.  Tunneling occurs when the infection and necrotic (dead) tissue starts to work its way deeper into the body.  As they followed the tunneling, they found 2 more masses of infection in his leg.  They cleaned them out and kept the wound vac on to help suck out any additional fluid and to promote wound healing. 

Lab Results as of Wed;

*INR was over 5.  This means his blood is too thin. Normal should be around 1.0

*WBC 21,000 Normal white blood cell count is 5,000-7,000

*Kidney function score was a 2.0, which indicates that the kidneys are not working as they should.

*They did an echo cardiogram and found excessive fluid around his heart.

*CT Scan- showed that the infection appeared to only be superficial in his chest.

They have done various tests to assess what type of infection he has…. Since he has been on antibiotics since his surgery, the cultures are not able to identify exactly what type of infection he has.  Because of this, they are using the strongest antibiotics they have…. Assuming the worst of infections and trying to treat it as if that is what he has.  It is likely a staph infection

Over the last few days the lab tests showed that the infection was getting better.  He was down to 13,000 on his WBC on Sat.  His INR was still at around 2.4… The challenge is that they are trying to balance giving him as much antibiotic as they can give him, without pushing the kidneys into further failure.   They have also been giving him vitamin K to try to help boost his blood into thickening up more.  This has not improved as fast as they would like.

Slim has had a hard time sleeping in the hospital bed. We received permission to take over his favorite recliner and put it in his room.  He spends most of his time in this chair.  He has to sit mostly upright because if he lays down he begins to cough and this irritates his chest incision.  He doesn’t have much of an appetite and has difficulty talking much.  He can talk for maybe 1-2 sentences and then starts coughing. This is why we have discouraged visitors…. He just can’t carry on any kind of a conversation.  It also drains him and he really needs to conserve his energy.

Sunday:  The labs came back and showed that his WBC had actually gone up to 14,500. This is not good considering how much antibiotics they are giving him.  They would like to have taken him into surgery today, but his INR is still too high.  In simple terms, this means that he could bleed out while in surgery.

The Tentative Plan for Monday-   They hope to take him in for surgery Monday afternoon around 4 pm.  The plan is to put a chest tube into his left lung to assist in draining out the excess fluid.  They also hope to explore his chest incision site and even look down towards the heart and surrounding tissues, looking for excessive fluid or signs of infection.  This could also mean doing some debridement of necrotic (dead) tissue.  Following the surgery, he may need to go to the ICU unit. 

We are not sure how long he will be in surgery tomorrow, as they don’t know just what all they will find once they are able to get inside his chest.   I will post again tomorrow night when we know more about how the surgery went.

Thanks for all your prayers and support

Jaren

Slim is home... Last post

Slim came home late yesterday afternoon.  He has been pretty tired and weak but has been able to rest more than when he was in the hospital. ( you don't get to sleep as much as you would think in a hospital)  He will need to have several follow-ups over the next few weeks to monitor blood thinners and his A-fib heart rhythm.

Again, our family would like to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers during this challenging time.


Jaren

Thursday Night

Slim has done well today.  He has had a lot of visitors today which has helped to make the day go by faster.  He did great with walking in rehab, to the point that they think he can be discharged tomorrow.  They are debating on if they should try to cardio-vert (shock his heart back into normal rhythm) his heart again.  If they do, then he will be there for a longer portion of the day. If they opt to just try the meds, he could come home tomorrow morning.  If all goes well and he does come home tomorrow I will make a final posting then.

Our family and Slim would like to thank you for all your prayers and support during this challenging time.

Jaren

Wednesday- Out of the ICU

This afternoon Slim was transferred from the ICU.

As they transferred him down to the step down unit they did a weight check on him.  He has lost 15 lbs of fluid over the last few days.  He is down to 2 liters of O2 vs the 3 liters yesterday.  This morning he was feeling shaky and tired.  By this afternoon he was starting to feel better.  Food still doesn't taste really good to him yet and he is still lacking much of an appetite.

Now that he is up more he is starting to get restless.  He can now have visitors.  We ask that if you come to visit please limit your visit to 15-20 minutes... again this is so that he doesn't get fatigued from too much visiting.  He will be up walking and doing rehab several times tomorrow and this is where he needs to focus his energy.

Jaren

Wednesday

He is still in the ICU but  hoping to be transfered to a step down unit tonight. Today's chest xray still shows pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs).  He is still on several meds and still has the feeding tube. He is eating some food, but swallowing is very painful and food "in general" taste awful.  His heart is still in A-fib and has not converted yet to a sinus rhythm, even on the medications. He is very weak but is doing well. They hope to start cardaic rehab tonight once he has been transfered to the step down unit. The family is still restricted in visiting. He is weak and he realizes this - and hasn't even asked to come home. Thanks again for all your love and support.
Dori

Tuesday night

Slim was up in a chair several times today.  His speech therapy evaluation went well.  He was able to swallow everything and so he was able to actually eat lunch by mouth today instead of a tube.  They still have the tube in place in case they need to provide additional nutritional support.  Although he was able to eat today, the taste of it wasn't like he would have hoped.  The meds may play a part in this.  They have removed the lines in his right arm.  All that is left is the central line in his neck. They were also able to remove the chest tube that helped to drain excessive fluid from his surgical site.  They also continue to push getting the fluids out of his system.   Since entering the hospital last week he has gained about 8 lbs.  This is mostly due to the retaining of fluids.  They have been able to drain 3 liters to date.  They have now switched from a mask to a nose piece to give him the additional oxygen.  He currently is on 3 liters of O2.  Looks like he will start rehab tomorrow.

His voice is getting stronger and he is able to carry on a simple conversation.  He basically has little to no memory of what has taken place since they brought him back from surgery.  Judy and I were able to visit for awhile today and relayed to him what all happened and when.  One memory he does have is of the tube in his airway.... He doesn't want to have the tube put back in ever again!!!

Still not sure when he will be transferred out of the ICU. Tomorrow would have been his target discharge date.  However; since he had the set back that lasted for about 3 days we don't expect him to come home before the weekend.  This is a guess on our part.

Jaren

Tuesday Morning

Slim was able to sit up in a chair for longer periods this morning.  The team of physicians rounded on him this morning and set up the game plan for the next few days. They are still concerned about the excessive fluid.  To date they have drained over 3 liters out of his system.  They are going to change the diuretic medication to see if it well help flush more fluid out. They are still concerned about the Mitral valve not working properly.  This could be part of the problem with fluid build up.  If the heart can't push blood as efficiently as it is suppose to,  then bloods flows backwards into the heart... So this can then impact how the rest of his circulatory system pushes blood/fluids.   He will have the swallow eval and start cardiac rehab later today.  They don't anticipate that he will be moved to the step down unit until tomorrow or even Thursday.

The staff has asked the we NOT call his room.  First, the phone is not located next to his bed.  There are too many lines etc. that it could get tangled in and so they have it off to the side.  Secondly,  They either have to get him up out of bed to answer the phone or the nurse needs to take time to do this. This takes them away from patient care.  Third, and most importantly to me, is that he is just getting his voice back and needs to not use it too much.  Talking also causes him to expend energy.  He then gets exhausted and then needs to rest.  Which could limit his ability to perform  those tasks that he really needs to focus on in order to get better.....such as cardiac rehab. 

Will post later tonight.

Jaren

Monday Night... Off the Vent and in a chair.

When I went in to see Slim this afternoon he was sitting up in a chair.  He had an O2 mask on to help keep his oxygen saturation level in the normal range.  I was sitting and talking to him a little about how he was feeling when someone came into the room.  At first Slim was not able to recognize who had come in. He has a hard time wearing his glasses while having to wear the O2 mask...  As the person got closer he was able to see who had come to visit...... Ryan had just arrived from Bamako, Mali in Africa!!!  It was a shock to Slim and as the nurse was working on some off his med lines you could hear Slim say in his soft crackly voice with tearful emotion.... " This is my boy from Africa"  Although Slim had told Ryan, prior to the surgery, not to worry about coming home things changed when Slim took a turn for the worse.  Ryan made an executive decision and decided to ignore the suggestion of his father and come home! Not the first time any of us have ignored the advice of our father....  Ryan's stay will be short ( leaves Sunday), but we are glad to have him back. And I think Slim actually was quite happy to see him as well.

As mentioned in the previous posting today. They tried the electrical shock in order to reverse the A-fib.  This worked temporarily, but a few hours later the A-fib returned. They tried this several times during his first heart attack in April. Each time the A-fib returned.  They opted to try the same med they used to correct the A-fib last time.  It may take some time to correct with this medication... if at all.

He is craving ice right now to help sooth his throat.  They are limiting his fluid intake as they are still using the Lasix to help flush excess fluid in his system.  That being said, some of Slim's personality is returning as he is trying to charm the nurses to give him more ice than he is allowed to have. The charm isn't working, but at least he tried.

They were able to remove the main IV line in his R arm this afternoon.  He still has the main line in his neck as well as his L arm. He also still fatigues quickly.

From what we hear, they do not anticipate moving him to the step down unit for at least another day.  He will have the Speech Therapy consult to assess his swallowing tomorrow.  He will also start cardiac rehab.  They couldn't start the rehab today as he was still tethered to too many lines etc.

They are still limiting visits and the length of visits. Mom and Dori were only able to visit with him for about 10 minutes this evening.  Tomorrow will be a key day to assess his tolerance for standing and walking.  His heart is not use to working while in a prolonged standing position.   Since he hasn't been up and standing for 3 days other than to transfer to the chair earlier today.

We appreciate all the support and prayers on Slim's behalf.

Jaren

Slim experienced some a-fib (irregular heartbeat) since the last posting. They had to shock his heart to get it to return to a normal rhythm. They opted to remove the vent tube when specialists were on hand. Waiting to see how he responds with that. He now has a mask with O2 and can only talk in a whisper. He will have speech therapy come to evaluate his voice and swallowing either today or tomorrow. Waiting for more overall details on his status. Will update later this afternoon.

Jaren

Sunday Night- Two Thumbs Up!!!

          Visiting hours are closed from 6-8 am and 6-8 pm for shift change.  Mom came home at around 6 pm and said that they had decreased the sedation such that he was starting to wake up a little.  They also started him on Lasix earlier in the day to help flush out the excess fluid in his lungs and extremities. They were able to flush about 1.5 liters out by the time mom left to come home.  They hope to continue flushing out more fluid during the night.  It as also nice to hear that they had him sitting at the edge of the bed for a few minutes this afternoon.   

He will remain on the vent tonight.  If all goes well throughout the night, they might try to take the tube out tomorrow.  This is mostly a guess on our part, as it will be the physician that determines when this will happen. Unfortunately, we missed talking with the physician today during his rounding on patients.

When Mom and I went to see him again tonight just after 8 p.m., he was awake and for the most part alert. (the medication that they used to sedate him is still in his system) so he was very tired. We again were able to communicate by yes and no questions.... The tube down his airway is still his biggest complaint.  He can't wait to get it out!!!

As you can see from the picture I posted above, Slim was able to give a 2 thumbs up on his being awake and progressing.  If you look closely, you can see a portion of the tubes that are going into his airway.  You can also see that on his left arm, there are multiple connectors to the IV line.  This is where they connected a portion of the many meds that they had him on over the last few days.  You will also notice the restraints. These are in place to keep him from pulling out the ventilator tube either accidentally or at some level, intentionally...  Sometimes patients can be so agitated by the tube that in a subconscious way they attempt to remove the tubes. This is something we don't want to have happen at this stage of his recovery due to his initial intubate issues.

The picture below shows the many pumps they used to help push the different medications into him.  At one point all of them were going at the same time.  Tonight he was still on only 7 meds. Good news!

Overall it was a great day.  He is not out of the woods yet, but is now headed in the right direction.  He is still quite weak and fatigues quickly.  Once they can remove the tube he will get busy with early stage cardiac rehab.  He will also have a difficult time talking for a day or two after the tube is pulled out.  Mostly due to the irritation from having the tube in for so long.

We continue to appreciate every ones thoughts and prayer on his behalf.

Jaren

Sunday Morning

Slim appears to have had a good night.  Meaning- that they were able to wean him off of more meds during the night.  They now have him on around 7 meds as compared to the 14-19 meds on Friday night and Saturday.  Blood pressure is 126/78 (normal range).  Heart Rate is down to 95 today vs 110 on Saturday morning.

The main challenge for today is to see if they can start to wean him off from the vent.  How fast this happens really depends upon several factors.  First, his vital signs etc. need to remain stable as they decrease vent out-put and the meds that help keep him sedated. Secondly, they are concerned about his airway.  When they started to intubate him in surgery they found it very difficult to get a tube down into his airway.  They had to have one of their best ENTs (Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor) perform this procedure.  Because of this difficult airway issue, they don't want to wean him from the vent too fast.  If they were to take him off and then suddenly he begins to have complications again, it would be very difficult to get another tube down into his airway again in a timely manner.

They did try to turn down the vent a little this morning to see how he would do.  It did cause him to struggle with his breathing so they backed off of it for the morning.

Will post more as we can.

Jaren

Saturday Evening

Baby steps in his progress this afternoon.

Over the course of the day they were able to slowly wean him down on the dosage levels for some of his medications.  If fact, they were able to take him completely off of the nitroglycerin.  This med was used to help dilate the blood vessels to his heart.  Thus allowing for more blood flow and oxygen to get to the heart.  The fear is that once his vessels begin to constrict down to a "normal" size,  the blood pressure etc would begin to crash again.  At this point, that is NOT the case.  He has been off for 4-6 hours and seems to be handling it well without the nitroglycerin.  We will take the small positive step anyway we can get them!!!  This afternoon blood test showed that his enzyme level have decreased slightly as well!!

He is still in bad shape and even though they are calling him stable. It is a very tenuous level of stability. 

There are no plans to take him off of the sedation in the next 12-24 hours.  Also, there no plans to remove the ventilator during the same time frame.

Again- Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

Jaren

Saturday Afternoon

Slim pretty much is under sedation all the time.  From what the MDs told us this morning.... They were in crisis mode last night.  His heart is experiencing what they call cardiogenic shock.  This is not uncommon with the type of surgery Slim had.  It's just that he is experiencing more of it than normal or more than what we had hoped.   He has stabilized a little more this morning.  His enzymes levels haven't gotten any worse and his lactic acid level appears to be decreasing a little.  The lactic acid build up comes from the portion of the heart that is not getting enough oxygen.  I would guess that it is similar to what occurs to your muscles when you are over exerting them like when you exercise.  It basically means that the oxygen can't get to that portion of the heart to help and you need the blood flow to help clear out the lactic acid.  This is the main concern right now.  They want/need to get this under control.

Last night they had him on 4 different meds to help control his blood pressure.  This morning when I went in to see him they had removed one med and had decreased the dosage in others.  He has been able to keep his blood pressure at around 100/60.  Normal is around 120/80... So it is still low but it is not dropping!  They are monitoring him for Sepsis also known as a blood infection.  They have him on several antibiotics to help keep this from happening.  Right now they are trying to ween him off of various medications a little at time.  It looks like he will be on the vent for a few more days.  Surgery is still an option, but from what the MD's tell us, it will have to wait until he is more stable.

What the MDs are saying is that they think he had a larger Myocardial Infarction (MI) or heart attack than what they previously thought.  It would fall into the same category as what he experienced in April.  Only this time he didn't have the same level of intense pain and was a lot more alert throughout the MI episode.  In other words his symptoms did not appear to be as bad as what he may have truely experienced.

We feel fortunate to have the team of physicians that are working on him.  This group is not only recognized locally, but they are also well known and respected nationally for their level of expertise.  


Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Jaren

Sat Morning... Rough night

To begin- Mom called the hospital this morning at around 3 am to get an update.  At that time, the surgeon and an intensive care specialist were both there checking on Slim.  They were reviewing some test results and making some changes to his meds.  The update at that time was:

Slim's enzymes are again elevated.  He is high in lactic acid and a portion of his heart that is called the papillary muscle, is not getting enough oxygen.  His lungs are filling up with fluid and they continue to keep him sedated. He appears to be stable, but not as stable as when he came out of surgery.  They may need to take him back into surgery.  They would probably place a stint in the artery that provides blood to the papillary muscle.

At this time they are only allowing family to see him for five minutes at a time.  We are only able to see him once every hour.


Jaren

Friday night update- a step back...

We received a call at home tonight from the cardiac surgeon that performed the surgery on Slim today.  As they were weening him off of the ventilator tonight. Slim's heart rate went up and his blood pressure went down.  They have decided to hold off on weening him from the vent for tonight.  They have put him on a low dose nitroglycerin drip and sedated him so that he can relax and sleep tonight.

Judy and I came by shortly after they called to check up on him.  When we came in he was still conscious.  He can't speak because of the tube down his throat.  He mainly communicates with a slight nod to yes an no questions.  We asked him if he was uncomfortable at all and he said yes. After several yes and no questions. We were able to figure out that his throat and the tube were bothering him the most.  Unfortunately there is not much we can do about that.

While the nurses worked on Slim, Mom held his hand and rubbed his arm while the sedation took effect.  She only stopped  to let respiratory therapy change over some of his vent parameters.  He will have one nurse in his room most of the night to help monitor his status.

There are currently 14 different pumps that he is hooked up to in order to help push various medicines into him.  His current blood pressure is 100/60, Heart Rate 111 BPM, O2 sat is at 94%.

So in summary,  He has had a little set back on a few things... This is not uncommon with patients in similar situations.  We hope he gets to sleep through the night and be ready to start weening off the vent again tomorrow morning.

Given his status, visitors are limited to immediate family until he has turned the corner on this set back.They are also requesting the visits be limited to 5 - 10 minutes. 

Jaren

Post Surgical Update

The Doctor just came out and gave us a briefing.  Everything went well and he is now in recovery.  He will be transferred to the Thoracic ICU in about an hour.  He will still have the tube in his mouth and down into his lungs to help with breathing.  As far as what surgical procedures actually took place:

They took a vein from his R leg and used it to construct 4 out of 5 of the bypass grafts.  The 5 graft came from a small vessel underneath his chest.  He will be on  a respirator for the next 7-10 hours.  If all goes well they will be able to wean him off by sometime tomorrow morning.  They also did a procedure that is called the Maze procedure.  In general terms-  They make a series of incisions that will form scars that help normalize  or control the electrical impulses the heart uses to rhythmically control the heart beat.  There is still a chance that he could go into what is called A fib or abnormal heart rhythm.  So they have a temporary pacemaker in place in case they need to bring his heart back into normal rhythm.  He will be well medicated for pain and comfort as he will have tubes/drains, IV lines etc in place.  They hope to be able to start him sitting up tomorrow and then start early stage Cardiac Rehab on Sunday  If all goes well, they may even transfer him to the step down unit on Sunday.  As he will be spending tonight and possibly Saturday night in the ICU.  He/we will not be able to use his cell phone.

Jaren

Thursday Night Update

Slim had a lot of visits today from various departments and physicians.  Reviewing medical history answering questions etc. Mainly getting all the prep work done prior to his surgery tomorrow morning.

We understand that they will start surgery between 7:30 am and 8:00 am.  The surgery will last for 4 to 4 1/2 hours.  The physician indicated that we should get an update on his status about once an hour.  Even after the surgery. He will need to be in the PACU or OR recovery room for around another hour.  Then he should be transferred back to the ICU. We probably won't actually be able to seem him until later in the afternoon. 

Braden, Uncle Randy and myself were able to give Slim a blessing tonight.  I beleive Slim felt comforted by this and it seemed to help ease some nervousness about the surgery.  Not that Slim would mention that he is nervous.  But since this is the first major surgery Slim has had in his 70 years.  It stands to be expected that you can be a little nervous...... Its certainly not one of those things you want to have on your bucket list.

Will update the surgery status as soon as we able.


Jaren

Wednesday- Moved to another floor

Not much change today other than he was transferred to the step down unit.  If all goes well he should be in this unit until his surgery on Friday morning.

Jaren

Tuesday's Update.... A Lot Of Waiting

Not much to report about today.  Slim was able to sit up in a chair for a while.  They won't allow him to walk around. I didn't get a specific answer as to why this was the case.  I assume that they want to keep his heart from potentially exerting too much. 

Slim is still in the CICU.  There was some talk of transferring him to the Cardiac step-down unit today.  Unfortunately that unit was full.   This may happen tomorrow...  Provide he doesn't have any additional episodes.

Jaren

Slim's Status

Monday- 1/17/2011

We have created this blog as a way of communicating to family and friends on how Slim is doing. 

To begin-  Late Saturday evening Slim felt some arm, chest and throat/neck pain. He had eaten some spicy food that night and thought it might have been indigestion.  He went to bed and woke up early the next morning to get ready for his church meetings.  He didn't feel any pain.  He then went to his early morning church meetings and felt fine.  He came home about mid morning and started to not feel very good.  He began to experience increased chest pain and suggested to Judy that he should probably go to the ER.  At this point he had a significant increase in pain and collapsed to his knees.  Judy then realized that she wouldn't be able to get him to the ER and called 911.

Once the paramedics arrived they immediately gave him 2 baby aspirin and some nitroglycerin spray.  This dramatically decreased his pain.  While in the ER he underwent some testing. He was actually starting to feel pretty good and thought he would be able to go home.  His blood work showed some elevated enzymes that are indicative of having heart stress.  They decided to admit him overnight for observation.

Monday Morning-  Slim had a rough night.  The chest pain came back and they had to place a nitroglycerin patch on his chest to alleviate the pain.  Blood work this morning was again positive for elevated enzymes related to having a heart attack.  In fact, the enzyme levels had significantly increased... meaning that he definitely had had another heart attack. Possibly two.  They performed an EKG and it didn't show any signs of an obstruction.  They then took him to the Cath lab to perform another procedure to see if they could find out where in the heart the blockage was occurring.  The results of this procedure showed that he had several arteries that were obstructed. A couple of them have over a 90% blockage.

After consulting with the physician regarding his options, it was felt that the bypass surgery would provide the best potential outcome. (The location of the blockages would put too many stints too close together.)  They will need to bypass 5 arterial areas. They would have taken him into surgery this morning except that Slim has been on Plavix (a blood thinner) since his first heart attack in April.  So... They need to wait until Friday before they can perform the surgery.  In the meantime he will stay in the hospital to manage his pain and to monitor his heart.

The good news-   He was quick again to get into the hospital and at this point it doesn't appear that there is any long-term heart damage.

We will try to post updates daily if not several times a day.
Thanks for all your prayers, love and support.

Jaren