Wednesday, August 19 7:30 am

After a long night in the ICU, Marie is headed back in for Part 2 of the catheter clot removal. She spent a good deal of the night in and out of pain -- they had a pain pump, IV meds, and pain pills going all night. The wonderful nurses there told me she did well, though, and slept a bit. I'm hoping we don't have to go back there when she's finished today -- the care is superb, but it's a big room of patients with no privacy and you can't stay long -- this unit is for the most critical of cardiovascular patients, many who like Marie are coming in or out of procedures and need unfettered access. I got to the hospital this morning for the 6 am visit knowing the procedure would be around 7:30 or so, and I got kicked out (along with all other visitors) as the man across from Marie coded. It took forty-five minutes to try and stabilize him, and he didn't make it. The Cardio ICU makes me realize all that's going on around our own troubles, and how hard this must be on the very caring nurses who deal with this day in and day out. But Marie looks good -- they got 76% of the clots yesterday, and we'll see what happened today. Please say a prayer for that man and his family, and join in me a prayer of gratitude for all the miracles we've been given -- Jeannie, Robert, and Marie, Annie. God's been busy taking care of the Cleary family.