Blind Prophecy

When the doctors told us that my father had a 50/50 chance of surviving his operations, it was a lie. We found out today that they were only estimating that he had a 10% chance of surviving today’s surgery.

I guess we beat the odds!!!

Yesterday he had his angioplasty. Today he had 6 bypasses (a sextuple bypass operation? or a double-triple?). He came out of surgery about 9pm tonight and the surgeon says that everything went remarkably well. Many surgeons would not have even attempted the operation on a heart so badly damaged (I’m told that a few local doctors flat-out refused to operate on him because they thought the risk to high). Well, the surgical team replaced six blockages (one over an inch long) and he’s on an Intra Aortic Balloon Pump instead of a Cardiac Pump, which is encouraging. The surgeon also said that his heart is smaller than before the surgery, and that’s a good thing, it means his heart is pumping blood more efficiently.

He’ll be in ICU for a few days at least, but assuming he recovers without complication, this will probably add years to his life. We’re “almost” out of the woods.

He still has to lose about 100 pounds (they want him at 150 to take the stress off his heart) and he’ll have to monitor his diet and insulin levels like never before. It’ll probably be weeks before he’s actually discharged.

But it’s still a good day. I feel like I’ve just let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding for a week. My own heart was beating so wildly when I left the hospital tonight I was nervous that I’d been the next heart attack victim.

I didn’t have the courage to go back and see him after the surgery, though. I heard that he still had the incubator tube and his arms and legs were strapped down so he wouldn’t hurt himself. I didn’t want to see him like that. I’ll visit tomorrow when he can talk.

Anyway, my sincere thanks to everyone who prayed or worked magic or just kept us in your thoughts. I don’t know where the strength that got us through the last few days came from, so I believe that it must have come from the many wonderful people who have cared for us.

Filed under: livejournal by Jere Keys