July 8 PM Update
Tomorrow is game day! We've asked a ton of questions, learned even more, and now all that’s left to do is wait until the morning.
About 7 a.m. Eastern tomorrow, the surgical team will arrive and take Josh back to the Operating Room. Mrs. Vickie and I will be waiting just down the hall, and the doctors tell us they’ll be calling and giving us updates. I’ll pass on as many of those as possible. The duration of the surgery is variable, but we think it will take possibly 6 hours or more.
I’ll save you the particulars, but Josh will be having a Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting, or CABG (pronounced as cabbage). They do like a dozen or so at this hospital every single week, and more than half a million are done every year in the US. It’s an incredibly common procedure, and that makes me personally feel much better. The plan is to harvest a few veins from his right arm, and then replace the four arteries in his heart that have severe plaque blockage. Once done, Josh’s heart will be as good as new, and probably even better.
The good news is they did not see any other plaque in his other major arteries. They’ll also be able to image his heart during surgery using an ultrasound probe, so if there is any thing out of the ordinary they can tackle that while they’re in there; every test so far says his heart is fully, structurally sound, though, and the plaque buildup was limited to the four coronary arteries on the outside of his heart.
Going into the surgery, Josh is physically in good shape. He’s had a few headaches from the hit-or-miss hospital food, but last night we did sneak him some low-fat Greek food. His EF, a measure of the efficiency of his heart, was at 40-45%, a good improvement from 30% when he was admitted to the ER. He’s had another EKG today, but so far I haven't heard the results. Dr. Huckaby, the surgeon assisting lead cardiologist Dr. Keeling, said every single indicator they look for in a patient before surgery is exactly where they want it to be.
We’ve seen the cardiovascular surgeons, a handful of anesthesiologists and a few other doctors, I hate to admit, that I have no idea of their speciality. Each has answered our questions and assuaged our fears. The team here at Emory Midtown are great, and every single person has said that, because of Josh’s young age, his healthy lifestyle and lack of any other health problems, his chances of a successful surgery are nearly 100%. Even more so, his chances for a quick and successful recovery are the same. It was such a relief to have all these experts tell us what we already know: he’s a little scrapper and will be just fine.
We’re taking this journey one day at a time, though, and tomorrow is the most consequential one yet. Keep Josh on your mind tomorrow, and we will try to keep you on ours. Even though we have faith that everything will go exactly to plan, the waiting is just mentally and physically brutal. A few prayers and good thoughts for us in the waiting room will also be appreciated!
Josh will probably be very, very groggy for the next few days and not able to use any of his numerous, beloved Apple devices. Please feel free to email me at me@robbiebyrd.com or text me at (512) 573-0077 and I can pass on your message.
Mrs. Vickie Malone (Josh’s mom) requests that everyone set an alarm for 7 PM Eastern and send Josh a prayer or two. For those who aren’t early risers, we’ll take them pretty much any time of day.
I love that man with all my heart, and I know you all do, too.
We wanted to say Happy Birthday to Aunt Patsy Malone in Biloxi, Mississippi! When we first started dating, Josh told me that as soon as I met her I’d find a common soul, and boy was he right. We love you and Uncle Earl!
