Mid Winter Communiqué – Fred’s Medical Mis-Adventure

It’s been over 15 years since I put out a Mid-Winter Communique but it seems like the time has come again.

Most of our adventures this year (2016) are here in the BLOG and it was a fun Canadian travel time.

But since September Fred has developed an intimate relationship with the Health Care system.

First, it was pains in his chest.

In Emerg, they confirmed that he had not had a heart attack but did not know what was going on.

After a week in the hospital, they really couldn't find anything wrong with his heart – needed to do more testing. His kidneys were not functioning at their peek and they won't do an angiogram (which is the only test that would give us any more information about what his heart is doing) while his creatinine is so high and this can only be done in Calgary. 

According to the doctor, there is nothing we can do for that except keep flushing out his kidneys with lots of water. I asked him whether our elevated levels of anxiety were warranted and he said we are in the process of dealing with of some of the issues so we can relax a bit.

Finally, they decide they can dilute the dye enough to be relative safe for the angiogram and we managed to get an appointment for the angiogram and possibly an angioplasty – clean out the artery – and insert a stent to keep it clear.

We were at the Foothills hospital in Calgary (about 2 ½ hours away) by 6:45 am on Friday, October 21.  Fred was admitted and had an angiogram, angioplasty and a stent put in by 10 am.

Another oops! Things screwed up! They were still trying to figure out why he was still short of breathe and got pain sometimes but not others so they kept him in there to monitor.

They decided that he had a sticky valve and it should be either repaired or replaced and that meant surgery. BUT they won't have any definite plan until their conference meeting at the end of the week. 

They flew Fred back to the hospital in Lethbridge and he stayed there for over a week until the first of November.

Got a phone call from the cardiac team in Calgary saying they want him up for a consultation interview with the surgeon – so off to Calgary.

Saw the surgeon who said everything looked good for surgery in early January. 

Doctor did a lot of explaining which helped ease our totally frantic minds!

 He explained all the worn out or damaged parts of Fred's heart and what has been done and what still needs to be done to sustain his lifestyle.

It all sounded so reasonable

Because he had the angiogram and the angioplasty, he needed to be on the anti rejection drugs for at least 6 weeks before they can do the open-heart surgery. So he targeted the first week in January for the surgery – 5 days to a week in the hospital and then 2-3 month to recuperate.

I asked him if we should cancel our reservations on the Island for March and he said "No".

Good sign!!

Long story short:

• Admitting for Pre-Op – December 17^th
• Surgery – December 19^th

 ^{In the meantime}

 

We wish you all Season’s Greeting

and

All the Best for 2017!!!