3."Side effects and complications"

So as you might have guessed I didn't get much sleep. There were things I needed to do at home and the whole night I spent tossing and turning thinking of him.
When I got there it was nice to see him awake and alert but as you may have guessed he was in massive amounts of pain. There were tubes coming out of his chest for drainage and coughing which was part of the healing process was excruciating for him.
The first day he mostly slept though and I just couldn't leave his side. I was just grateful he was OK . He was in SI CU and the visiting hours were strict so the days were a little shorter.
The next few days he seemed to get a little stronger everyday with the exception of a few side effects and complications. He had developed an arrhythmia called A fibrillation due to irritation in his chest caused by the surgery. It just meant that for now he needed medication to control it.
He was finally going to step down after 4 days. It was nice because he had more privacy and more freedom to move around. The first day in step down seemed to be going well and he seemed to be adjusting until later that night after I had gone home.
I got a phone call from him begging me to hurry back. He said he wasn't feeling right, he felt like he couldn't breath and his heart was racing 150 beats a minute. I was terrified! It normally took me 15-20 minutes to get to the hospital, well not this time it took me 5. When I got there the nurses were trying to get him to get into bed so that they could take him back to SI CU but he was afraid to move and he was having trouble breathing so that complicated things.
I was finally able to get him back into bed and they got him to SI CU where they immediately assessed him. The whole time I was right there by his side trying to remain calm and to keep him calm. I could see his heart beating in his chest. It seemed like his whole body was beating. It was getting harder and harder for him to breath. Then finally they discovered the problem. He was in congestive heart failure due to a nurse in step down not administering his heart medication. He was literally drowning in his own fluids as I stood there. The nurses (about 5 of them) saved his life! They administered a medication called lasiks which drains the body of excess fluid and when it is given through an IV it works almost immediately. Within the next 10 minutes he was feeling much more comfortable and able to breath. They had also given him his heart med. I stayed until 4am just to make sure he was OK. He didn't want me to leave. He was afraid that it may happen again and that they wouldn't help him in enough time.
He was in SI CU for another 6 days. He refused to go back to step down because of what had happened. I was so angry that they could allow something like this to happen! He will probably have anxiety attacks for the rest of his life. I will say that I've never seen a hospital suck up to a patient so much as they did him. SI CU costs about $10,000 a day. They had to either find a reason for him to be in there so that insurance would pay or eat the bill themselves. I don't know nor do I care which one they decided on.
Even when he did go to step down he was still given top notch treatment.Then 4 days later he came home. Finally!!!
I have so much more to share but I need to go for now. Another Dr.'s apt. I'll write again tomorrow. God Bless to all and Thank you for reading my story!

2."The Results"

So there he stood as our mouths were almost to the floor! Then he said, we're going to go on with the surgery the lymph nodes were negative for cancer! We all burst into tears. Relieved that it had not spread. Though we don't know the exact results and findings yet at least Finally this was a step forward and not back.
Now it was time to sit and wait again not knowing what would happen for the next 4 hours. The time seemed to move quickly at first, until the time came that it was supposed to be over. Soon it turned into 4 and 1/2 hours and then 5 until finally the Dr. came out, it's over and he did well during surgery. He told us that the mass in his lung was 3.4 cm and that the lymph nodes inside the lung surrounding the tumor were also infected with cancer. He then proceeded to say that it looks like stage 2 or 3 and that further testing is needed to know for sure but,.... he thinks he got it all! Now it's time for him to recover and then to go home until it's time for further treatment.
I have to say that this whole thing is like one huge nightmare and I just keep thinking that I will wake up and we'll be back to our everyday lives. We've never had money but we've always had each other! It's so strange how things change in an instant. I always tell my children that you need to appreciate what you have and not what you COULD have or want. Life is precious and we only get one. In the end all of the material stuff won't matter you can't take it with you anyways. But all of that being said I myself am just as guilty for taking things for granted. My husband worked 2 jobs, 1 full time 1 part time just so that we could make ends meet and so that I could stay home and take care of our 4 year old. He's always taken care of us! Now it's time for me to take care of him!
So that's all for now I'm exhausted and tomorrow will be another long day with more of the unknown to come out. Good night and God Bless!