The Funny Farm

Today is the day that all wrongs will be made right - we hope and pray. Daddy is having surgery today from 1:00 until 5:00. This will be the fourth time! Dr. Fowler is going to open his chest and remove the three plates and all of the infection surrounding them. It seems that all of the antibiotics in the hospital can't heal him and they are going to have to break over and operate. He will be left with a hole in his chest and another wound vac. There may be other surgeries in the future to correct the damage and fill in the cavern in his chest. His sternum will not be held together by anything and therefore will not ever be stable again. He will always have movement in his chest now that the plates are being removed. The muscle flaps that support his chest are going to be undone to get to the plates, and they will hopefully be able to reattach them. I know Daddy's going to be in a lot of pain and I am so worried for him.
They are also going to open his thigh again and try to figure out where the leak in his lymph system is coming from. Hopefully that will be simple and they will be able to put another JP drain on it and all will be well. The lower calf has an infection called Pseudomonas (sp?) and they are going to remove all of the dead tissue. He is on loads of high powered antibiotics and will be for some time to come.
He told me how scared he was last night. I reminded him that he is loved and needed more than he will ever know and we will be here to help him heal. This is going to be like starting over again and it makes my heart ache for my Daddy and my Mother. We all can't believe that it has come down to doing this again. At least the doctor tried to be conservative and watch instead of cutting him open right from the get go. I am glad for that. We can't look back and say, "I wonder if they had tried the antibiotics one more week if he would have responded?" Now we know that this is unavoidable and quite necessary.
Please continue praying for my Daddy.