Just got a call from Connie, Pat's sister in all but blood.:-) He had a haematoma on one side of the incision which they took care of, but also found one on the other side. So he is headed into surgery as soon as the doc gets done taking out someone else's gall bladder! They have been walking a very fine line between plasma, frozen platelets(or somesuch) and lasix as well as the darn coumadin. As Connie says, he never does things by half. I think she said they did two units of plasma this morning, then things went dickie with his BP etc. so they readjusted with four units of something else plus the meds. Sorry, I didn't have a pen handy to take notes.

There is concern about anything else which may be causing bleeding. As Connie said, we hope it's just that he is on cuomadin, and, just after the appy, went nuts from after-effects of the anaesthesia and pulled out his PIC line as well as a drain AND tried to pull out the Foley (catheter!) so maybe he pulled a stitch or two? The greatest concern is the aortic aneurysm which they won't know about until they get in there.

After twenty years of working at the same hospital Pat frequents, no one has approved Karen's request for FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) yet, so any extra energy might be helpful there.

Michael has really stepped up to the plate and proven himself to be the fine young man we all knew he could be. He has been staying with Tristan when Karen has been at work, helping to keep Tris' routine as normal as possible. He has really matured and they have reason to be proud.

I will be consolidating your messages into one email to send to Connie who will take them up next time she goes to see Pat and Karen. Over the next few days he will probably be out of it because of the anaesthetic, again, but I know Karen will appreciate them. He will be in CCU after the surgery. Connie will call me if anything changes.

May he come out all right.

Love,

kat