Dad headed into surgery early Friday morning to start the repair of the right knee/femur, the right foot, and finally to add a plate to help repair his ribs fractures. This was his final major surgery that was planned that he would undergo.
The surgeon spent about 4 hours on the femur/knee, 2.5-3 hours on the foot, and another hour on the ribs. Surgery again went just as expected and very well. Dad tolerated surgery & anesthesia well.
After this long surgery and anesthesia, dad’s lungs were having a hard time responding after removing the intubation. He was then re-intubated and placed on sedation overnight and earned a stay in the ICU.
He has a fun story to tell with you all about being intubated when he is back up and going! Again, if you know dad and how stubborn he is, the story will make complete sense. I’ll leave that one for him to tell tho!
He woke up on Saturday morning and by Saturday afternoon they were able to remove the intubation! While he was doing great on Saturday evening, but they wanted to keep him in ICU one more night to continue to monitor him.
Sunday afternoon he was finally discharged out of ICU and transferred back to the Surgical Progressive Unit. He is much happier with the room he is in this time! A great view of the river, which will help with the long days he has ahead.
This week will be a long week of physical therapy & steps towards the next several months of what’s to come!
Kari and I will continue to share updates as they come. As a family, we cannot thank everyone for their love, support, and prayers. We thank you all for all of the messages & reminders of how lucky we are at the end of the day. Dad can’t wait to get back to normal, but knows he has a long road ahead & is grateful of all the love and support he has to motivate him along the way!
#DJKStrong
With all our love,
The Kirking Family 🤍
