Week 8 - He Lives!

Okay, that might be overly dramatic....But now you want to know the rest of the story, don't you?  Here goes...

John got sick right after he moved to Utah in 2013...the pneumonia affected his heart and he's been under the care of a cardiologist since then.  He's doing very well and we are perfectly confident in the doctor's treatments and recommendations.  .  

Now, a short while ago, he saw his cardiologist for his regular checkup. The doctor wanted him to see another cardiologist specialist...which he did.  That doctor wanted to have him do a stress test and echo cardiogram in preparation for possibly doing a procedure to help with his Atrial Fibrillation.  He had both of the tests a week ago Friday...on the way home, yes, on the way home!  He received a call from his regular cardiologist that they had seen something hinky on the stress test and he was going in to have an angiogram on Tuesday - no waiting...no discussion!  So, Tuesday morning sees us at the Hospital at 6:00 a.m.  His procedure was at 7:30 and by 7:40 they came in to tell us (me and mom) that they'd found a blockage in one of the arteries in his heart and were putting in a stent...he was back in recovery by 8:30, slightly groggy but awake enough to talk to us and know what had happened.  His regular cardiologist came in to talk to us and said that the blockage was at 85% on the central artery in the heart.  They were able to install a stent and the damage to the heart will take about a year but he should be fine.  He starts Cardiac Rehab in about 5 weeks...some slight changes to diet and carrying nitro glycerine tabs in his pocket - just in case.  He went back to work today - the rest of last week he was off and by the 2nd day he had cabin fever so bad so he's really happy to be back at work.

We are so thankful for the amazing staff at Mercy Hospital...from the wheelchair pusher to the surgeons, from the nurses to the patient advocates...they were absolutely the best!  

All of the above, and they still haven't decided what they want to do about the AFib. I think the heart blockage took precedence...now they can look at what they might want to do about the AFib soon enough.

As one might imagine, last week was mostly about John's situation so nothing much else happened.  This blog post will be short of necessity.  I'll try to post more next time.

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by.