February 19 2020 - Post-surgery Day Two evening update

This is reposted from my Facebook page.

Mostly good news today.

When I got to the hospital this morning, Doug was still on four vasopressors (all maxed on dosage) along with the fentanyl to keep him sedated.

They did SLED for ten hours, and his nurse's goal for the day was to start getting him off the pressors.

I left late morning to come home and nap for a bit (more on that later), and when I returned, he was maintaining his BP but on only two pressors, neither of which was maxed.

They stopped the fentanyl and put him on Precedex (different sedative), and by 6:00 or so he was off all pressors, at which point they turned off the Precedex so they could get him to start waking up (which will in turn keep his BP up).

As of now he's back on a low dose of levophed, but I'm not surprised by that. It's still ENORMOUS progress, and no longer seeing the crash cart parked outside his room is HUGE.

He's definitely not out of the woods, and I'm sure we'll still have setbacks, but this is really good progress.

Now, some "housekeeping": I know you all love Doug, and I am so very glad that you do. Please understand that I'm juggling A LOT, and while I truly do appreciate the texts and messages asking how he's doing, I simply CANNOT take the time to provided detailed updates over and over again. My priorities right now are 1: being at the hospital as much as I can, 2: taking care of our pets, and 3: taking care of myself, because if I get sick, I will not be able to be with him at all. And I won't allow that to happen.

So, I'm respectfully making two requests of you all:

First, if you want to send messages of encouragement, bring it! Please understand you may get nothing but a heart emoji in response, and sometimes not even that. But please don't message or text me asking how he's doing (refer back to "I cannot provide detailed updates over and over.") I'll post updates here as I can.

Second, I'm BEGGING you: unless I text you, PLEASE do not call, text, or Facebook message me after 8:00 PM. I have to leave my phone on so the hospital can reach me if needed, and every beep, ding, and ring wakes me up.

If this seems harsh, I'm sorry, and I hope you'll forgive me, but this is a marathon and not a sprint, and I've gotta pace myself and have some healthy boundaries.

I love all of you, and here's hoping for another good day tomorrow!