November 15

1:11am

Nathaniel’s parents and brother stayed until the waiting room closed last night (around 9:30ish) and they learned that I was the only one permitted to stay overnight. At the time I’d been sleeping on a couch in the waiting room.

Since then I’ve been sitting up on yet another couch, in the waiting room of the transplant ICU floor. I’m in the new building — the Clifton Center for Medical Breakthroughs, or as everyone calls it, the Pavilion. The last time I was here for anything other the cafeteria was visiting my friend Christine, so my heart hurts a little.

Anyway, at exactly 1am I got an alert:

Penn Medicine:The patient has left the operating / procedure room. You will be notified when it is time to visit.

That seems like a good sign! So now we wait some more… check this page for more updates throughout the day.

***
2:05am

I get to see him in 10 minutes. He’s still on a breathing tube and sedated and I don’t care.

***
2:25am

I’m in his room with him and all is well. I’m going to crash out on the huge sofa in his room now and sleep

***
9:51am

Nathaniel is intubated and sedated which means he’s not breathing on his own yet (this is normal) and he’s not conscious (also normal). From everything I can tell, considering how sick he was when he came in and the fact that he had as major a surgery as someone can have less than 10 hours ago, he’s in very good shape.

***
9:43pm

I ran home this afternoon to change out laundry and deliver meds to the dogs and things like that. Nathaniel spent most of the afternoon with his brother Shawn and his mom.

I got back around 9:30 and the staff had just finished up cleaning him up, changing his blankets, and making him more comfortable. He’s opening his eyes occasionally and his face is very expressive when he wants it to be. (We knew this already but it’s good to see it anyway.) It appears that sometime before or during the surgery he chomped the hell out of his tongue to the point that it’s been actively bleeding so they have a big cotton wad in his mouth to keep him from biting down that looks like a huge stogie. I would post a picture but he’s not conscious to give consent.

I’m waiting for my DoorDash ramen order to arrive so I can eat and then get some sleep.

Here’s a photo of the sofa in his room where I’m sleeping tonight.

I’ve turned on a tv channel that is all puppies. They are napping. I look forward to napping.