April Showers
Apr. 3rd, 2014 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walbournMy mother has been in the hospital for over a week. She had a 'mild' heart attack last week--I'm not sure why anyone would use the phrase 'mild' with 'heart attack', but that's what they said. She's had cardiac problems for 25+ years starting with endocarditis and progressing to coronary artery disease that was treated with bypass open-heart about 5 years ago. Unfortunately, the process that created the disease is still happening, and the vessels were blocked again.
The whole mess is complicated by lots of other problems (asthma and diabetes being the key ones) and very low physical fitness. The open-heart surgery that was done was pretty dicey and they almost didn't get her through it. As such, open-heart again is really not an option. Heart stints aren't very effective for calcium deposits, which is what she has, and they had to do a more aggressive treatment with a catheter drill. My folks were thinking of turning down the treatment, but the doctors said without this treatment she would probably die as soon as they removed the ventricular assist device they attached after the stint procedure.
The good news is that the procedure today seemed to go well. Won't know more until tomorrow, but she is still going to be in pretty poor health even in the best of circumstances. DrB and I are going to be headed to San Antonio in late April with Professor X and Pumpkin in tow...
In other news, moving into our new house actually started this evening. Closing was about a month ago, but we’ve been doing a lot of work with painting, having some carpet replaced (cork for the win!), various electrical and lighting tasks, etc. It’s a lot easier to get all that done with an empty house sans toddler, but it’s been a long slog. We will hopefully be sleeping in the new place by a week from Saturday. The Professor is pretty excited about the new place (Big House! / Chasey House!), but with all the disruption in his routine he's been a handful.
Update: She's no longer on the VAD thanks to the successful drilling procedure, but she's still on a ventilator as they get her fully back from the anesthesia.
Update 2: She's out of the ICU to a step-down unit. The drilling procedure seems to have been a success.
The whole mess is complicated by lots of other problems (asthma and diabetes being the key ones) and very low physical fitness. The open-heart surgery that was done was pretty dicey and they almost didn't get her through it. As such, open-heart again is really not an option. Heart stints aren't very effective for calcium deposits, which is what she has, and they had to do a more aggressive treatment with a catheter drill. My folks were thinking of turning down the treatment, but the doctors said without this treatment she would probably die as soon as they removed the ventricular assist device they attached after the stint procedure.
The good news is that the procedure today seemed to go well. Won't know more until tomorrow, but she is still going to be in pretty poor health even in the best of circumstances. DrB and I are going to be headed to San Antonio in late April with Professor X and Pumpkin in tow...
In other news, moving into our new house actually started this evening. Closing was about a month ago, but we’ve been doing a lot of work with painting, having some carpet replaced (cork for the win!), various electrical and lighting tasks, etc. It’s a lot easier to get all that done with an empty house sans toddler, but it’s been a long slog. We will hopefully be sleeping in the new place by a week from Saturday. The Professor is pretty excited about the new place (Big House! / Chasey House!), but with all the disruption in his routine he's been a handful.
Update: She's no longer on the VAD thanks to the successful drilling procedure, but she's still on a ventilator as they get her fully back from the anesthesia.
Update 2: She's out of the ICU to a step-down unit. The drilling procedure seems to have been a success.
