Most of you know that Graham has been sick for a few months. He had what he thought was a sinus thing, and an annoying cough that has persisted. He started seeing a doctor (three, to be exact), but their prognosis and meds never worked for him. A friend that he knows fit him into the schedule of a lung specialist group that he works for, so Graham went the week before last.
Fast forward to last week. Thursday morning he had a CT scan scheduled; he went and it seemed fine. They let him leave. A few hours later, literally at the end of my Thursday at work, he called me and told me they had told him to get to the ER immediately. They found a pocket of fluid on the outside of his lung between the lung and chest wall cavity. After a few hours, they decided to admit him and tentatively talked about a chest tube the next day to drain what was there. On Friday morning, his pulmonologist came in and told him that they would instead be doing a VATS procedure (you can use Google for this) on him to scrape off the puss/blood or fluid that was there. They would intubate him for this, he would come out with a chest tube, stay in the hospital for two days, then be released.
This happened on Saturday.
They came and got him at 11:50 a.m. and started on him at 1:50 p.m. Four hours later, they finished what was supposed to have been a two hour surgery. It was so much worse when they got in there. It was determined that he had had pneumonia and a necrotizing infection had set in and had nearly eaten through his lung. He didn't know he had pneumonia, by the way, because he never felt that sick. And he did start going to the doctor eventually when he felt bad enough, but still...
So the infection was outside of his right lung, just kind of hanging out in the chest cavity space that doesn't get blood flow. This never would have gone away on its own, had he not had this surgery! His lower lobe in that lung was so bad that it was adhered to his chest wall; it's still there, actually. She didn't want to try to pry it away, causing him more damage. Hopefully with his age, this will fix itself. He came out of surgery with three very large drains; they will keep those in place as they monitor him over the next few days. Hopefully he'll be released by Thursday or Friday; she said this surgery now required a 5-6 day stay with continuous IV medicine.
So I've lived at the hospital since Thursday, and that is where I will stay until I know he is better. I am adamant about him not being alone in a hospital with all that's going on, because of what happened to Chris. Gone are those days! His dad and I are kind of tag teaming for this; I'm actually going to work today from the hospital and then going back to the hospital after work for tonight and tomorrow since I'm off Tuesday. It's perfect timing, because I expect Tuesday to be hard for him since it's the third day after surgery. They always refer to that day as the worst, because everything is settling back in and the anesthesia has fully worn off.
When he comes home, he will be coming home to me so we can help him fully recover. He won't be able to drive for a good bit; he'll be with me and his dogs are temporarily living with his dad. I'm grateful that it's all worked out the way he has and that he is on the mend. I'm thankful that he went in when he did. I'm thankful that he is alive and that he has age on his side to fully recover. I've never seen anyone look so beautiful as he did after I laid my eyes on him after his surgery. We have lots of things to be thankful for, but we also have some hurdles to jump.
Will you help me pray for these things? We need that left lower lobe of his lung to become full of life again. We need it to reinflate and detach on its own. We need whatever lingering infection is there due to surgery to leave his body completely. We need for his lung to be able to function normally once again. These are big hurdles, but I know God can do it, and I trust Him; I take comfort in the fact that if I love my son as much as I do, He loves him even more because He created Graham in His image. He created all of us in His image!
Thank you for reading; thank you even more for praying. I don't know when I'll be back here, but you can always email me or reach out through Instagram. Love to all!
Jen
