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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

Good news about Mrs. T

March 3, 2020 by Terry Teachout

I’m overjoyed to report that Mrs. T’s condition has improved significantly since yesterday. She was having problems with “coagulopathy,” which is a fancy way of saying that her blood wasn’t clotting properly, and so she’d been receiving blood transfusions ever since her transplant surgery. No more: the internal bleeding has stopped, she is resting comfortably, and her doctors are completely satisfied with her progress to date.

The next step comes tomorrow. Mrs. T’s chest has been open ever since her surgery, which is standard operating procedure for a double lung transplant (and which absolutely horrified her when she was first told about it a year ago). Assuming that everything continues to go well, they’ll wash out her chest cavity and close her up some time tomorrow. We expect that she’ll remain unconscious for at least another couple of days after that, which is also part of the plan. For now, though, she is continuing to rest comfortably and recover from the surgery.

The nurses ordered me—very politely, but they were firm about it—to stay home from the hospital today. “If you come in, she won’t know that you’re there,” the chief nurse told me. “You might as well rest up now, since she’ll be needing you as soon as she comes around. Stay home and take it easy while you can.” So that’s my plan: old movies, Chinese takeout, and megadoses of music.

More as it happens, but I don’t expect anything more to happen today—and that’s the best of all possible news.

* * *

UPDATE: Mrs. T is still doing just fine as of midday Wednesday. Her chest cavity will be closed up first thing Thursday morning (yes, this is standard operating procedure!). They’ll start to wean her off sedation at that point and begin the gradual process of waking her up. I’ll be there and will keep you posted.

* * *

For previous reports on Mrs. T’s surgery and subsequent recovery, go here and here.

To learn more about her rare illness, go here.

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Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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