Update on my Grandma

It has been an excruciatingly LONG and EXHAUSTING 5 days! My grandma had a 5 hour open heart surgery on Friday. One of the arteries leading to her heart was leaking and needed to be repaired. Unfortunately, the surgeon was not able to repair it so he had to completely replace it. Fortunately, her heart has been doing great since then. We couldn't be happier with that!

On the down side, she's been having other complications. She ended up having a stroke and appears to have some focal problems. She had been on a breathing tube since the surgery and seemed to be doing very well with her breathing so the tube was taken out yesterday. Unfortunately, she started having breathing problems again, developed fluid in her lungs, and now has a breathing mask in place to help her breathing. This makes her very, very vulnerable to catching pneumonia. With the breathing tube out, she can now talk, which is making things even more difficult. She strains to talk and gets anxious when she has company, which in turn spikes her blood pressure. She can't relax and therefore cannot breathe properly which ultimately affects her lungs. She is very weak and we are incredibly worried about her getting sick. For this reason and after discussions with her doctors, we are asking everyone to respect our decision to limit her visitors to immediate family only and Tia Lillie and Uncle Rudy (her brother & sister).

We sincerely appreciate all the support our friends and extended family have given us and please take absolutely no offense to wanting to limit her visitors. We're just looking out for my Gram so that she can get better as soon as possible! Once my grandma is out of ICU and in a regular room, visitors are more than welcome at any time. If anyone wants any information regarding my grandma's progress, you can contact me via email or Annie via phone (cell or home). In the meantime, please keep praying for her and my family. We've all got a long road ahead of us.