He spent 3 days in intensive care after the operation took longer than planned and ended up in a lot of pain. Morphine helped (and also gave him hallucinations of a friendly cat that would visit him and once let him stroke it). He then spent a couple of days in high dependency where he was recovering but really tired.

I visited him yesterday on the general ward and he looked great. He was a good colour, the pain had gone (except when he coughed) and wasn’t tired and had a good conversation for the few hours we were there. He had nearly finished a jigsaw too.

We found out that the faulty heart valve was supplied by a US company that has now changed its name (I wonder why? Avoiding international lawsuits?). It was also really good that he had the op when he did as apparently the valve was just being held on by a single stitch. Oh boy that could have been nasty.

Some good news is that his atrial fibrilation has gone. We speculate that this is because he has a working heart valve now and his heart doesn’t need to fight all the time just to work.