Update #2 Nov 20th saturday morning

Emerson's surgery went wonderfully. Dr. Bove was able to repair his valve without having to do a valve replacement, which is what we were hoping for. Amazingly, Emer was on and off by pass in less than three hours. Dr. Bove reports that he was able to remove a ring of subvalvular tissue, which has basically resulted in doubling his effective orifice (removing the amount of mitral stenosis, allowing for a closer to normal blood flow), while not creating any regurgitation (which would be the opposit problem of too much abnormal blood flow).  His mitral valve pressure has come down by half (from around 11 torr to around 5 torr (estimations in surgery). Emer was sedated on the ventilator for many hrs post op, but so far is breathing well without any ventilatory support except nasal O2.  Today we are hoping the three chest tubes can come out, the pacemaker wires and foley urinary catheter can be removed, his pain gets better and he can be less dependant on the morphine, start eating, drinking and getting out of bed.  He is doing AMAZING and so far things are going better than expected!!!  Lets hope for no complications, no post op infections, and  that Emerson starts feeling better soon!!