James Carter

My granddaddy is basically the coolest, most amazing person I have ever met. Seriously. He is the funniest, wittiest man that I know and is always making someone laugh or telling a corny joke. Since I was old enough to drive, I would go and just hang out at my grandparents' house for hours on end- just hanging out with them. I am 4 years younger than his youngest daughter (I'm the oldest grandchild) so he considers me a daughter (especially after I was adopted by my other aunt and uncle and was therefore away from my dad- loooong story). He tells the most amazing stories from his childhood, time in the marines and most frequently, his marriage with my grandmama. He is so amazing- they have been married for 54 years and he still calls her "my bride"- I can't stress enough how amazing my grandaddy is.

Last Thursday, my grandaddy went in for heart surgery and he hasn't woken up yet. They have kept him sedated for a week now and were hoping to take him off the meds on Thursday, but it didn't happen. When they went in to put a stint (shunt? I don't even know) in his heart, they had to go in through his neck. Due to all the swelling, he then couldn't breathe, so he's now got an oxygen tube. So basically, he is just sitting in the hospital, comatose and not even breathing for himself. He is not a healthy man (always ate steak and eggs and smoked for a while) and add that to the fact that he's just old and he is NOT a fast healer.

I have been working and the hospital he is in is about 45 minutes away, so I hadn't been up to see him that first week. I felt so horrible and couldn't even imagine what it would be like if something happened to him and I hadn't been to see him one last time.

On Thursday, a week after his surgery, they had a scare because they thought that he had had some reflux and posibly asphixiated some of his feeding tube They did a bronchioscope (sp?) and it turned out he didn't so THAT's good. Also, his lungs were looking really healthy- just still wet and inflamed. However, they still hadn't been able to remove his oxygen tube and he was still sedated.

I took off Friday as a sick day to go up there and spend all of the visiting hours that the hospital had available with him- even though he was basically out (he did open his eyes though). He looked around a little and the doctors said he had been squeezing their hands on command, but he wouldn't do it for us. He was on breathing support that day (which is a good thing- that's where he does most of the work), but then the next day they had to put him on full support.

We went back this morning (Sunday- 11 days after surgery) and he's still out. He went in 11 days ago for a 2 hour surgery which he was in for almost 12 hours, and he still hasn't woken up. Last night his blood pressure dropped very quickly and they had to give him fluids to try to bring it back up (which made the swelling worse- it's such a delicate balance) and more morphine and adavan. They're talking to grandmama about doing a tracheotomy so he doesn't have to have the breathing tube in anymore. It's more sanitary and there's less risk of infection and pnuemonia- however, we don't know if he's strong enough to get through another procedure AND he's still so swollen, it's going to make the tracheostomy harder.

I think I'm driving grandmama back up to the hospital this afternoon around 3:00. She was more at peace about the tracheostomy last night, but today she doesn't seem too encouraged by the way he looked and the complication with the blood pressure last night.

Basically, I just spend all of my time praying that he will be strong enough to fight through this. Everything from the heart surgery is fine- his heart looks good and they fixed what they went in to fix- he just isn't healing from it. He keeps doing this 1 step forward, 1 step back thing and I just pray and pray and pray that he is strong enough to fight through this. I know that God has a plan for everything and we're not to worry, but I'm having a hard time not worrying.