July 5 PM Update
It's hard to imagine getting excited about someone eating more than half their dinner, but when I say that I was absolutely ecstatic today, I mean it. A healthy appetite is so important when your body is trying to heal, and I'm really glad that Josh is getting his back... slowly but surely!
As I mentioned in the July 5 AM Update, they are planning to do a "balloon study" this evening: essentially, they will begin slowly turning the intra-aortic balloon pump down from every heartbeat, to every other heartbeat, and so on, in small chunks of time while monitoring his progress. If everything goes well overnight (the "study" procedure takes many hours to complete, I'm told) then possibly by tomorrow they may remove the balloon pump completely. This is awesome because he'll be able to move around again; if you truly know Josh, then you can imagine he's been so delighted to remain mostly immobile.
We are hoping to solidify plans in the coming days, but we are hoping for surgery on Tuesday (or possibly Monday). You would think the waiting was a bad thing: "Why don't y'all wheel his ass on back there now?" is how I believe I phrased it to the cardiologist. But so long as he isn't in any pain, the waiting is really a good thing: it gives his heart a chance to "calm down" (as Lane put it) and also allows super-powerful blood thinners he's received a chance to "wash out" (medical term).
I hope you all know that we, 20+ doctors, the entire hospital staff and like half of Atlanta are doing everything they can to make sure he will, after some recovery of course, return to 100% Josh. We are at Emory Midtown, an affiliated teaching hospital with Emory University. The Cardiothoracic Surgery department is one of the top in the nation. Even Josh's interventionist surgeon is pretty much a bad-ass when it comes to the kind of emergency surgery they performed on Sunday. These people are the tops.
Josh's parents and I really want to thank all of you for the kind words and gifts over the past week. The gifts have kept us fed and watered, while the kind words have kept us afloat. We honestly don't need a single, solitary thing right now except your thoughts, prayers, vibes and related good will. We love you!
Heart Health Tip
The one thing Josh has said throughout this experience is that he hopes people, even young ones like him, will start thinking more about their heart health. I've been reading quite a lot, and I've got two tips for you today:
- FIBER - Take a fiber supplement. Seriously. Fiber helps bring down cholesterol and blood sugar, two of the biggest risk factors for heart disease. They come in all kinds: from the gross orange powder mix all the way to the cute little gummy bear variety.
- DASH DIET - I know that our culinary lives will never be the same after a heart episode, so I've been doing research on the least disgusting sounding diet. The DASH Diet is scientifically proven to improve heart health, and honestly, it doesn't make we want to cry. No one says you have to like completely live by it tomorrow, but maybe grab a recipe or two and add them into your meal rotation.
