golden girl gabs

They checked Will's pacemaker this morning and it was requiring the same voltage as yesterday morning, so they didn't make any changes. We were hoping it would have gone down but at least the requirement didn't go up. They are going to let him go home today and he will cone back Monday to have it checked again. We are just waiting on the PA to come fill out the paperwork to discharge him... Hopefully soon so we can be home for most of Christmas eve. I know Will will be more comfortable at home. And we all have to make a few last minute shopping runs... :-)

Well, we are still at UAB and will be until tomorrow. Around 7 last night his pacemaker started not capturing as well as it should. He would go several beats where only his atria would beat and the ventricle wouldn't respond. He could definitely feel it and would get lightheaded, etc. It went on all evening but followed no pattern. Sometimes it would go 5-6 beats without capturing. Mom and I left around 11:30 and dad waited for the Dr to come by. The Dr was finally called around 1an and the pacemaker tech came in to make adjustments. He had to increase the voltage so it would capture better. This morning he wasn't requiring as much voltage, which is a good sign. They think it may all be due to the inflammation from the surgery and have given him steroids to help with that. The fact that it is better this morning is good news - because if it wasn't there was talk of them having to go back in and put new lead wires or something more serious/complicated. So he won't be going home today as we hoped but pending no other changes with his pacemaker they will check it first thing in the morning and he can go home then. He was just moved out of the ICU to a regular room which is great. He is moving around a little bit and has just begun to eat a little solid food. He is sore but doing well with pain, etc. Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery and for the pacemaker settings to all normalize.
One funny story from last night: the nurses changed shifts last night at 7 and he changed from an older gray-headed woman to a cute young brunette who just graduated from Samford in May. Once she introduced herself and left the room, Will looked at me and said, "game on!". Needless to say, I think he enjoyed his 12 hours with nurse Laura. :-)

The doctor just came out and told us the surgery was over. They did find a lot of scar tissue which is probably why it took so long. They only had to replace 1 of the 2 leads to his heart - the atrial lead was still working well. We thought he might come out of surgery with a chest tube, but he did not need one. The doctor said he will stay in the CICU overnight and go home tomorrow. We should be able to see him within an hour. Praise the Lord that everything went smoothly!

I know, I know - long time no post. But hopefully I can catch up over the holidays!

Today my brother Will is having surgery - he was born with congenital heart disease that required several surgeries when he was young to repair the defects and finally a pacemaker at age 4. He had the pacemaker replaced in 1999 and now has to have it replaced again today (due to battery life). Today he is also having new lead wires placed on his heart that connect to the pacemaker in his abdomen. They are attempting to go in thru his ribs to place the new wires and must go through a lot of scar tissue from previous surgeries to do so. Our hope and prayer is that this will be successful and they will not have to open his chest (which would require much longer recovery). We are at UAB and they took him back to start the surgery around 8am. He was cool as a cucumber, as always... I'm sure he will be flirting with the nurses and have them wrapped around his fingers before too long.
We appreciate all the calls and texts today and definitely appreciate everyone's prayers! We are trusting the Lord to take care of him and guide the surgeons in everything they do. I will update my blog when he is in recovery!