Recovery

We have kind of left everyone hanging. Sorry. This is the first time Ashton has been awake for an extended period of time. When he was sleeping, it kind of all hit us at once and we realized how exhausted we were. We have been sleeping almost as much as he has. They let me go back with him as he fell asleep, but not without making me look like a goon.


Surgery went without a hitch. They found a mitral valve that had been damaged due to the existing anatomy of the heart. They fixed that, too.

He slept after surgery, clear through the night, and well into most of the day. This morning they removed the tube going into his femoral artery. This afternoon he got to lose the line into his carotid artery; he hated having both of these pulled.

He still has a chest tube which is draining fluids. He won't lose that until tomorrow. He has to carry a box around with him until they get this removed.

This box is acting as a vacuum to drain all the fluids from his chest.

Now he has a zipper running down his chest. Maybe when he wakes up he will want to see if it works