It's Routine Surgery, Really

But nobody can deny that heart surgery is serious. Any kind of surgery is, in my book! I know this blog is supposed to be about my adventures in DC, but as long as I have a blog, I might as well write it all down so I remember the experience. I have this sad habit of not remembering significant happenings in my life--so I'm making it a point to remember this one.

For the faint of heart or easily bored, I suggest skipping the following 2 paragraphs. What I'm going to do is describe the surgery, how it went down, and what's happening now.

What dad has is mitral valve regurgitation, which caused the blood to flow in the wrong direction in part of his heart--making his heart work harder & causing swelling, as well as an irregular heartbeat. The doctors thought they may be able to fix everything with medicine, but that didn't work, so my dad elected to have the surgery. They were unable to repair the valve, so they instead inserted a bovine valve (pig!) which is the closest option to the real thing. This is better than a metal valve, the other option, because now he can be on fewer meds that cause him discomfort. They hooked him up to a heart-lung machine, which keeps the blood circulating throughout the body and provides necessary oxygen to the heart, lungs, brain, etc. all while the heart is stopped so they surgeons can work on it. Amazing, I think!

The next part of the surgery was called maize--which was a procedure done by making burn marks and hopefully shocking the heart back into a normal rhythm. Irregular heartbeat was what brought on this whole problem. It's a 50-50 chance that the maize will keep his heart in a regular heartbeat.

Lastly, they had to cut off an appendige (sorry about the graphics) in order to reduce the swelling. I have always said he has a big heart.. :) But literally, a swollen heart has to work harder--this will make it more efficient and relieve stress.

The surgery itself is routine, like I said, but it's invasive and painful for the most part because they have to break the sternum bone--which is the thick bone protecting your heart. This is where dad's at right now--in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), waiting to get better enough in order to be able to remove all the tubes and things that are connected to him.

Again, I'm sorry if I bored any of you. Just good to have it down on "paper."

It's amazing to me how much support my family has gotten throughout this process. I'm in awe. My dad is a hero; I know he'll pull through this well. I'm glad that the surgery part is over and now we can focus on the healing process. It will be hard to go back to "normal life," but I feel better knowing that we have a good support system at church, at the hospital, and in the community.

It's like I just kind of pressed a "pause" button on my life the past few days. It's been in and out of the hospital, not much sleep, making our own lunches and getting quite cozy in the surgical waiting room. I've found it as a blessing-- my dad gets his heart fixed, and it brings us all together as a family. It's been awesome.

Work and Washington will be there waiting for me when I return. I will have just a month left in the city when I get back.

Thanks for reading. I hope you all have a wonderful day. <3

keepin up

Jamie and I have been running. Ok, actually Jamie has always been running, but i've taken up going with her. I can now officially run to the washington monument and back..quite the accomplishment seeing as Capitol Hill (the actual hill) is killer.

Work is up and down. On the best days, I feel like an integral part of the staff, and I feel accomplished, and I do important things. Other days, I'm updating a spreasheet for six hours...and likewise, some days I love it and it goes by quickly, and other days it's dragging on and I can't stay awake.

The recent arrival of our new Executive Team Assistant, M, has made an already positive work environment even better. M and I really get along--and we enjoy being "newbies" together.

I'm midway through my internship, and I have mixed feelings about that. I love this conference...and I also really miss home. Both homes. Formal looked like so much fun!

My dad's surgery is getting closer- I'm going home on Saturday. My entire immediate family will be home..first time since I graduated high school. (almost 3 years!) Should be nice to see the hippie brother.

:)

<3

just another sunday

So C's visit was awesome. It was so nice to have someone here from home. Sad to see her go!

Friday night was a lot of fun, too, except I swear this bar we go to, McFaddens, is cursed. C lost her coat and phone (which I later found..on the curb outside. wtf?) and managed to chip her tooth on a beer bottle. I think she had a good night, overall though...haha.

Saturday we kicked back and took it easy and today we went grocery shopping and completely cleaned the entire apartment. I also did three loads of laundry, which is like, my entire DC wardrobe. good times!

I'm having some troubles with the Metro..delays on my train for tomorrow so I have to go early..and my smarttrip deactivated so i have to mail in some form to get my money back..AND some guy jumped in front of a train the other day, which is like my worst fear everrrr.

other than that..life is good. Dad's doing well. Going home soon. :)

<3

...

Wow, i haven't been so good about writing in here lately. i used to write every day! oh well. Chandra got here on Tuesday night, and we went out with our other old coworker schutter. it was awesome to have a little reunion.

Dad was in the hospital this past week. His leaky heart valve didn't get better last time with medicine and it was acting up again. He has surgery scheduled for March 31st to replace it. I'm going home because my sister is awesome and paid for a plane ticket for me. It'll be so nice to see everyone. i miss them.

Work has been good; kinda busy. I've had a couple days off since C is here. I don't think there are any other big updates...going to a museum today. we went to the air and space museum last weekend but it wasn't too impressive.

that's all i can think of at the moment--hope everyone is doing well

catch up

Friday we went to our first speaker, which I think we were all a little apprehensive about. The organization we went to was called APCO Worldwide, which is a public affairs firm. Doug told me to apply there and I didn't and now I'm kicking myself..but it's okay. Anyway, the guy we met with was some senior executive, and he was really awesome. We learned a lot about the public relations industry and lobbying and a bunch of other stuff. The building was really awesome, too. He gave us a lot of insight about job-hunting and resume-writing, too. It was nice to hear it from someone who actually interviews people and makes these decisions. Then we explored the area of town around Metro Center, which was fun.

I then met up with my fellow NGLCC interns. It's exciting to have peers at work, even though I don't really fit in with them. They all know everything about this town and have their little niches. They're all really nice though. M even shares my love for Hillary :) We had Thai food at Nooshi which seems like a really popular place for the college-age set. I loved it! And I ran into one of my old coworkers. This town is soo small..

Last night we had people over then a few of us went out to a bar in Dupont. It was awesome except for the whole daylights saving time thing.

I can't believe it's 8pm already!

C comes to visit on Tuesday, and I have Wednesday off. I'm SO excited.

Til later <3

i've been neglecting this..

life has been busy again!

Since the last time I posted:
1. The plague of 3F (first robin, then kelly, then robin's boyfriend, now me...)
2. Blake visits 3F (Robin's BF). He's cool!
3. Crime & Punishment museum - awesome
4. work- gooood.
5. Armands-pretty good. should have had pasta. next time.
6. Homework- press conference- HARD! ugh.
7. No more energy to type more!