Scarier and scarier

[kukla_tko]

At least My Father and the rest of the family had the grace to be shocked and surprised that I didn't have a clue about the news.

Papa even sent out an email message to the family, which I doubt would have happened if my StepMom hadn't told him about my nasty surprise today.

Here's the update, BTW:

(From Papa):
Dear Family and Friends,
This Friday morning, December 17, I will be having Dr (name removed)
perform open heart surgery to repair my leaking mitral valve, at St Mary's
Hospital in St Louis.
I learned this week that some of you are unaware that this was in the
offing. Here is the background. A heart murmur showed up at my annual
checkup with Dr (name removed) in August, 2002. He sent me for an
echocardiogram, which showed the leaking mitral valve, and then he
recommended a cardiologist. The cardiologist has done several more
echocardiograms, as well as a transesophageal cardiogram and a
catheterization. Everything is fine with my arteries and veins, but the
backflow is getting worse and the left ventricle is enlarging. Pulse,
respiration, blood pressure, thyroid are all still normal.
The doctors all say that surgery now will take care of all the trouble,
but that waiting as little as 6 months is flirting seriously with
long-term danger. Now at last, I am done with: SLUH employment, 4 years of
Chinese study, fixing the garage, making the house
no-longer-a-strictly-boys'-house, the trip to China, this year's
weightlifing competitions, and this year's taiji workshops.
The surgeon says he does not expect that I will need any blood; if I
wanted to provide a unit autologously, he would wait six weeks afterwards
before operating. He does this procedure several times a month, and he is
committed to repair (as opposed to replacement) if at all possible.
The expected hospitalization is a matter of days (not weeks), and the
recovery is expected to be a matter of weeks (not months). Sue will be
taking good care of me, and her longtime friend, Patty Rudolph RN (who now
works at Susan Cuddihee's Bethesda) will be paying a lot of attention.
Maybe I will be able to get back to wrestling practice at the end of
January.

Merry Christmas 2004 and Happy 2005


++++
Merry Christmas, Indeed. Provided that he doesn't DIE under the knife and chainsaw, or from infection or complications afterwards.

Christmas plans are all jacked up now, too. At this point, we will see seats-of-pants fly in a Christmas Miracle.

Whine. Bitch. Complain.

(Reel in terror.)
minidoc, if you're reading this, some reassurance would be an excellent Christmas Present.
As would post-surgery gift ideas for the recovering Papa. I already intend to provide him with a large squooshy stuffed creature to hug when he has to cough or laugh or something. I seem to recall my Grandpa using one after his open-heart surgery.

Comments

[bradhicks.livejournal.com]

I don't have minidoc's qualifications, but I'm old enough to remember when this surgery was invented ... before you were born. And even then, St. Louis was a major center of innovation for it. The rest of the world comes here to study this surgery. The odds are that your father couldn't be in better hands anywhere in the world; I doubt that the presidents of the US get better surgical care than your father is going to get. If they were willing to wait this long, heck if the surgeon is willing to even consider waiting 6 weeks so your father can self-donate blood, then they're doing this in plenty of time so there's no reason to fear complications. The absolute worst case scenario is that he ends up with an artificial heart valve: a thirty year old piece of absolutely perfected, totally reliable medical equipment used by millions who are still alive, happy, and fully healthy, no big deal at all.

I'm not saying this to invalidate your fear. To a human being, there's very little that sounds scarier than the idea of stopping someone's heart on purpose and intending to restart it later, and I don't blame you for feeling scared when you hear it. But oddly enough, it really as routine as he said, nowadays.

MVR repair

[minidoc.livejournal.com]

MVR is mitral valve repair or replacement. I consulted my father about surgery, (he is a cardiologist) he states that overall the mortality is very low, in the worst case scenario the mortality for repair is about 3-5%, which . I suspect that your dad waited as long as he could and still do it electively. I'm glad that at least this is not emergent. Your father's youth holds well in his favor as well as a supportive family, does not have coronary artery blockages (they did the cardiac cath to make sure he did not need a bypass at the same time as the repair.

The surgeon sounds like he is fairly good. It is promisisng that he wants to do repair versus replacement first. Replacement is ok but is not as ideal as you would need to be on blood thinners the rest of your life if you had a mechanical valve put in. If they can repair the valve, the likelihood of him regaining good left ventricular function (ejection function or the ability for the heart to squeeze out blood properly) is good and that he should have minimal problems.

Make sure that he gets good nursing care, if possible chat with his nurses to make sure that he understands his post operative and wound care. Make sure that he is forthright with the physicians about his pain control needs.

The most important thing the could probably get would be cardiac rehab afterwards because it will help him regain his strength when he is ready.

Re: MVR repair

[kukla-tko42.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU very much. This is extremely helpful.

Any chance of seeing you over the Holidays?

Re: MVR repair

[minidoc.livejournal.com]

Not sure as of yet. I have to do the Xmas thing with Hick0ry and his folk and I have to work New Years in the ER in exchange for having Xmas off. I'm not sure yet what of early January. Hick0ry may want to see some family in Florida while he has time off. (Not sure how long one of the members may be around etc due to cancer.)

I do need to be coming back to town soon to work on wedding planning but until I get home I will not know how evil my schedule may be.

Things got kinda ugly with my family in Hong Kong, note not my extended family but my immediate family. Everyone has pretty much succeeded in having an all out melee with everyone else except between me and my dad. So depending on when things cool off will dictate when I may come back to STL.

I'm back stateside now but not home yet. Having a layover in LA tonight and trying to figure out what to do with myself.

*Hug*

[felax.livejournal.com]

'Nuff said.

Re: *Hug*

[kukla-tko42.livejournal.com]

Thanks to you, too!