Before surgery

A few pics the week before surgery :)) We had about 15 or so of Jason's friends over to celebrate his birthday...Jerry baked two of his famous chocolate cakes haha..it was so much fun :))

Wednesday...

Last night some of our dearest friends...Darin, Narissa & Courtney (unfortunately Trev was out of town & couldn't join us) came over to have dinner with us. Narissa cooked a delicious homemade meal...roast, mashed potatoes, garden fresh green beans & corn, mac & cheese, salad, rolls, cherry cobbler & ice cream! Narissa is an amazing cook!!! Jerry was able to visit with them for a little while...as well as our pastor & his wife earlier in the evening. Everyone has been so generous & loving to our family...I don't know what we would do without them :) Jerry is having some difficulty sleeping since they want him to sleep on his back until the sternum heals. The pain meds are also causing night sweats & nightmares so his sleep is interrupted frequently. His heart is strong but physically he is feeling pretty weak. He is walking & doing breathing exercises very well. He is trying to stay up most of the day & rest from time to time. His appetite has not returned yet...so a few bites each meal is about all he is taking in. Overall...things are going as we anticipated. It's just a long process to "normal" & we are working on that everyday. In the meanwhile....the stress levels are high so please remember our family in prayer. My blood pressure has been high all day & I don't normally suffer from blood pressure problems. I'm sure it will all level out once we get a more consistent schedule & Jerry is able to walk safely without assistance...I'm very paranoid that he will fall & rip the sternum open so that keeps me on edge. Thanks for your continued prayers....much love to all :)

Out of the hospital

Jerry was released from the hospital this morning & we are finally home!!! We all went straight to bed & slept all day so forgive me for not answering messages. Jerry is very weak but glad to be in his own surroundings. His doctors are very happy with how everything turned out...it was truly amazing! Jerry will begin doing basic things slowly until he builds up his strength & then he will start cardiac rehab in about four weeks. The recovery will take several months & within a year he should be completely back to normal. You can hear the valve tick when it's quiet in the room & you are close to him but that's actually a reassuring sound since it lets us know that the valve is working :) I will continue to update the blog so everyone can know his progress. He will be unable to take calls for a week or so. Right now he gets really exhausted with basic tasks so we want to save his energy for walking & breathing treatments. Thanks again everyone...much love from the entire Garland family!

Great report...3 days post op

Jerry had a good night. Dr. Kempe came in this morning and said they are taking all the tubes out today and if he walks good and does well he will probably go home tomorrow!!! His oxygen dropped 10 points too low last night but kempe says it's normal and he needs to prescribe me a sedative because I'm worrying too much...I told him that would be just fine with me hahaha

Dr. Kempe came by this morning and said that Jerry is progressing as he had hoped. He decided to wait another day to remove the chest tubes so everything will probably come out by tomorrow. Jerry's temp spiked during the night but his fever broke around 7:30 a.m. He is having a great deal of arthritic pain in his arms and legs due to the low temps in the operating room and the restraints that were used during and after surgery. This makes things difficult since he must walk four times today and he is currently unable to walk outside his room due to the pain. We attempted a shower at jerry's request but this has really worn him out for the morning. He is eating a normal diet now and we can bring in whatever he likes. Please continue to pray for his deep breathing...he only had 9 deep breaths yesterday and he needs 3 per hour. He did about 6 breaths during the night but has been unable to do any in several hours. The nurse has warned us that the spiked temp is the first sign that pneumonia is settling into his lungs. However, he is clear so far and we hope to keep it that way.

Long day...

Jerry did well today. We are still working on breathing and trying to get off oxygen. Breathing deep is very painful but must happen to avoid pneumonia....please continue to pray for Jerry to be able to do this part because we don't want complications after such a great start in his recovery. He walked three times today for about 25 feet and hopefully tomorrow he can go a little more. We had several visitors today and Jerry was able to talk to most of them. Tonight he is feeling a little more pain in his chest and was very weak after his final walk. He is sleeping now and I hope he will have more time to rest since we are out of ccu. Nite all.

Making progress...only day 2!!!

The cath, left iv's and neck tubes are out. We only have one iv, 3 chest tubes and the electrical wires that are attached to his heart remaining. He sat in a chair for about an hour and actually ate a real breakfast...eggs, muffin and a little oj. The surgeon and cardiologist came and are pleased with the post op progress. Jerry gets a little dizzy which is common until the heart adjusts to the new valve. They can't remove the oxygen yet...his levels drop a bit below desireable range when they remove it. Breathing deep seems to be the biggest obstacle...but he is workn hard on that...he can only take about three deep breaths per hour right now. Jerry will be released from ccu by noon and go to a private room and he will begin short walks.