July 9 PM Update 2

Josh is resting right now. He is no longer intubated, but he does have a number of IV lines and a good number of IV meds at the moment. The nurses tell me that we’ll start to see them be removed overnight until he will have just one IV and a couple of IV medicines to make sure his chest wound heals without any chance of infection.

He’s alert but on a lot of pain medicines. We‘re really hopeful because we helped him get his pillow in a more comfortable position, and when we asked if that felt better he shrugged and said “sure.” So we’re pretty confident out Josh is back.

We don’t expect any changes overnight. Right now, Josh still has the intra-aortic balloon pump in his leg, traveling to his aorta, just as a precaution and to give his heart a chance to successfully fuse the new arteries and settle down. We won’t be tracking troponin levels anymore, as we expect those to slightly increase after such intense heart surgery. But doctors will be watching his ejection fraction (EF) to make sure his heart continues to pump effectively.

We are pretty exhausted but also incredibly relieved. Thank you for all the messages and well wishes today. Thank you for distracting me with nerd talk (Jamie!) and stories of “the old days.” It really meant a lot.

We are all going to rest hard this evening, and tomorrow I’ll have more to share on recovery. Thank you to everyone! ❤️‍🩹