UPDATE ON BROTHER WAYNE VINSON

On Wednesday of this past week Wayne Vinson, Minister of Music at Bradford Baptist Church in Starke had 5 bypasses done at Shands AGH in Gainesville, FL. The Doctor told the family and friends this after the 5 hours plus surgery:

He doesn't think his heart will recover. It will be a "bonus" if it gets any better.
The Dr. said you can live with a poor heart with much medication and treatment but it's often difficult.
At some point Wayne will need a heart transplant as he (the Doctor) has done transplants on hearts better than Wayne's.
He is still on the balloon pump and on a ventilator.
They removed 3 1/2 liters of fluid off from around his lungs. Water came out around his lungs and was surrounding them (hence the initial thought he may have double pneumonia-he doesn't).
Expects Wayne to be on a ventilator for days or up to a week (he got off it Thursday afternoon) and will be on the balloon pump in his heart for a while too.
Currently on medications and drips to help his heart beat stronger.
He was anemic when the came down to the operating room and is still anemic.
No blood transfusion at this point.
Kidneys worked better while on the heart lung machine indicating that his heart wasn't working well (not pumping enough blood for the kidneys to do their filtering job). Kidneys suffering from low heart function and same hardening of the arteries as his heart. They are struggling due to arteriosclerotic disease as a result of his diabetes. They did take a vein out of his right leg from the ankle to the knee.
Dr. stated, "So far so good, actually I think it is encouraging that he got through the surgery without too much trouble. He is not out of the woods by any means he could still have a lot of bad things happen but this is a good first step."
The next two days are a serious time, they will tell if he is really going to struggle.
Very probable that he will have to go on disability and not be able to work anymore.
Don't know how Wayne's heart will respond to the bypasses. If they can just maintain the function that he's got he can probably do okay, The Dr. doesn't know if he' ll be able to function at working level or not but he'll be able to get around for sure. If it gets any worse he'll need to be transplanted. If he gets better he may be able to end up working. [adapted from JEJ]

AS OF LATE SATURDAY (May 10) [from his wife]

Wayne is feeling better today. Yesterday he wasn't feeling well (he had thrown up about 4 a.m. the night before) & it was all he could do to keep down 2 crackers. They only let immediate family in yesterday to visit. This morning the nurse said if he didn't eat they'd have to put a tube down his throat because he had to get some nutrients. He did eat some for breakfast--yeah!. The nurse said he could have anything he wanted to eat (they had to get him to eat--anything), so I went to Chick-Fil-A (his favorite place) & got him a 12 piece nuggets & an icee. He ate 7 of them & saved the rest for supper. I left at 6 p.m. & he was just starting to eat supper.
This morning the Dr. said he was doing good as long as he was hooked up to everything, but was concerned how his weak heart would respond when they started taking him off all the meds & drips (hooked up to his I.V.--which they're going to take him off some tomorrow) & when they take him off the balloon pump on Mon. When they take him off the balloon pump he'll be able to sit up (the poor guy has had to be flat on his back for over a wk. now because of that) & they'll start getting him up & then he'll start walking around.
Everybody is calling him the miracle of the week. The Dr. has been pleased with his progress & says he's doing well for everything he's been through, but like I said, he's concerned with how he's going to respond once he's taken off things (because of his weak heart).

We met with the financial person on Fri. (Wayne has no insurance). I told him all our income & bills etc... & he's pretty confident (like 99%) our entire hospital bill should be written off. He also said we should get Social Security Disability the 1st time we apply (he's already got the ball rolling on that). He said it should take about 6 months. Medicaid & food stamps should only take up to 45 days (he's already got the ball rolling on that too). They said they'll give us samples for a 30 day supply of all the medication he'll have to take.

Our church family has been great & has helped us a lot. They're appreciated more than they know. A friend told me that her church (which also has a school) is finishing a family life center & will be hiring more teachers for the fall & teacher's kids go there tuition free, so please pray I can get a teaching job there. Usually by this time of year I already have the girls' homeschool books for next yr. bought, but I don't this yr. The Lord knows what's going on & you can see his hand in everything that's going on. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have the Lord & my family & my church family & my friends & all the prayers that are going up on our behalf.

Thank you so much for your prayers & support. I've felt them all. I want to say thanks to everybody who has helped us out in 1 way or another. And a special thanks to Lisa (who's been through almost the same thing 10 yrs. ago).

Beth

P.S. His kidneys are doing good & he's had a total of 2 bags of blood to help out his heart.