July 6 AM Update

Good morning! Not much news to report this morning. The balloon study didn't happen last night. The medical team decided it will be best to leave the intra-aortic balloon pump in place until his surgery. Unfortunately, this means that Josh-o has to remain flat and cannot bend his hips or his right leg, because the balloon pump goes from his femoral artery all the way to his heart. Any bending could cause the pump to crimp, reducing effectiveness and, I'm told, possibly press on other blood vessels in his abdomen. So, for now, we're stuck, but only for a few more days... (see below).

Some good news: Josh's troponin levels, an indicator of continued heart muscle strain and stress, have finally gone down! Previously, the levels were above 25,000, which made it almost impossible for the lab to get an accurate reading: anything above 25,000 does not register on their equipment. However, today we're told they are down to 19,000! This is the first time since his admission the levels have been low enough to get an accurate reading. As his troponin levels fall, his heart is regaining some strength and becoming less and less "angry" and inflamed.

Surgery: Currently, Josh is scheduled for open-heart bypass surgery on Tuesday, July 9. While we don't know for sure, the cardiovascular interventionist surgeons indicated they thought it would be a quadruple bypass. We don't yet have an estimate of how long the surgery will take or what his immediate surgery recovery timeline looks like, but as I said in the past the doctors, nurses and staff at Emory Midtown are some of the best in the country, if not the world. We have trust in the medical team, and know that Josh is in the best hands. The good news is Josh's heart should be back to 100% within a very, very short time after the surgery. Most of the recovery time will be in healing his ribs (which they crack just a little to get into his chest) and the large incision in his mid-chest area.

Josh is currently watching Wimbledon; I initially protested, worried that the stress of a live sports event could be stressful on the heart. But then I remembered that Tennis is quite possibly the most boring sport on television, next to golf, and I relented. I'm so thankful that Wimbledon is on right now; Josh is so bored, so any distraction is most welcome.

Thank you so much to Lisa, Vince, Beka and my work family at Indigov for the beautiful flowers. We broke the rules sneaking them into Josh's room, so please no new flowers. At the moment we don't need anything. Our friends and family have filled up my phone with Uber, DoorDash and Target gift cards, which have been such an amazing comfort. A special thank you to Lane and Nettie for coming by and seeing us earlier this week, and a extra special thank you to Nettie for helping me get some shoes: the soles on my "airplane" shoes were not conducive to walking all over Midtown Atlanta. And special thanks to our Austin family for sending me some work stuff so I can hopefully do a little work while Josh recovers next week.

I am hoping to make a run to Walgreens later today to print all the wonderful photos you guys have been sending. If you have any photos of you and Josh (or just good pictures of Josh, he loves pictures of himself! 😄), send them my way and I will hang them in his room. You can email me at me@robbiebyrd.com or hit my celly at 512-573-0077. I've added a photos that you guys have sent me, and they really are giving me life.