Pictures *Viewer Discretion is Advised*

Posted by Brittney

Dad got home before 2 this afternoon; he called from home to let me know they got there safely. From reading his last couple posts, I know he was more than ready to get out of there. And I have a feeling the nurses were begging Dr. Willekes to release him already.

Now that he is home safely and doing much better, I thought it was time to post some pictures to give you the graphic truth of what we have all been looking at.

Let me remind you what he looked like just before going in:

That was 5:30 AM. This was him at 6:15 PM, three hours after his surgery was over.

Scary huh? That's what took so long for him to wake up, they had to wait until they could safely get the breathing tube (the big thick one) out of him.

This next one was taken Sunday night.

See the bluish line on his chest peaking out of his gown? The nurses drew that to mark his swelling. His face was all the way out there!

Finally, these are taken on Tuesday, looking much better.

Here's a shot of his battle wounds. Under his nipple, it looks like a wrinkle, but that's actually the incision. The major white tape under that is where his drainage tube was hooked in. The other smaller tape above it are other incisions I think. The one on his neck was a cath attempt. Notice the nasty bruising under his chin. It's also like that around the side. His chest is bruised too, and you can see where they had to relocate an electrode thing (the circle under the top left one). I think he accidentally ripped it off doing something (trying to escape?)

His arms are all sticky from the tape and the IVs, they gave him little swaps to wipe it off, but it was a lot of work. We think he should just shave his arms and get it all over with in one easy step. I don't think he'll go for that.

Now that he's home he'll have to get a picture of him happily roaming the house. He figured the blogging out without much assistance, we'll see about pictures.