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I need your prayers **UPDATED**
8 years ago
General
--UPDATE-- Jan 12, 2018
We got more test results in and some more details as to what happened to my dad. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes they are much appreciated. WE are not out of the woods yet but overnight and today his prognosis has improved.
There were definitely two blockages in his heart but the one that couldn't be unblocked during angioplasty was near the top of his heart. Because the artery where it happened was so small the cardiologist isn't worried about it. There is a diagram on a whiteboard inside his CCU suite showing where exactly the blockages were. They also put a stent into the bigger blockage at the bottom of his heart to prevent a re-occurrence.
The blockages in his heart turned out to be blood clots and not arterial plaques. In fact his cholesterol numbers are ideal. He is on blood thinners(good insurance against more clots), of course, and they changed his blood pressure medicine which seems to be working. As I said before the type of attack he has was in the 20th percentile so they are not ruling out anything from a clotting problem to an inherited birth defect (narrow and hourglass shaped heart arteries) to abnormal clotting issues to DVT and circulation problems. The cardiologists are literally scratching their heads as to a root cause. They are by far though not out of diagnostic testing and other tools to investigate.
So far permanent damage has been minimized and the heart can re-route itself but this will be a recovery that will take months. He remains on bed-rest within the cardiac care unit and is in much better spirits today. he is very much active and full of vigor. He will remain in bed over the weekend until they do a stress test on Monday. We are looking for him to be out of the hospital in about a week and a half
If anyone is out there my dad suffered a heart attack today.
I hope everyone understands what I'm about to say but i need your prayers at least for the next week while they figure out what happened and put him back on recovery. Right now best case is a week in the hospital and 2 months at home. Out of work of course and maybe longer if his heart takes more permanent damage. I may or may not set up a GFMe to help with the loss of income but ill look into that more after the anxiety calms down.
He was taken by ambulance to hospital this afternoon but they caught it right away thankfully. He is in a lot of pain and they have him on morphine but he is still a bit in denial about the heart attack and is fighting bed-rest while on blood thinners and hooked up to an arterial tap in his arm - something that takes special handling.
He was just getting ready to give my mom her bath before the classic symptoms showed up, dry heaves and all. We did not have any asprin in my parents house but thankfully both my mom and sister knew what was happening right away and my sister, instead of driving to the wrong hospital convinced my mom to call an ambulance. They were there within 7 minutes and were able to do an EKG before they loaded him into the ambulance. I found out that they gave him nitro and whatever else on the way to the hospital through a "code 4 event".
They brought him to the Cardiac Centre (missed a 'widowmaker' event this way) here in Windsor (wont name the hospital but locals know) and within an hour he had an angioplasty done on one of two blockages seen on an Angiogram. They could not unblock the second blockage as he arterial layout of his heat near the 'bottom' had a lot of 'twists and turns' and it prevented access. It is still blocked now but they are watching it for damage. They scheduled him for an ultrasound tomorrow . They may try again to remove the second blockage tomorrow or Monday depending on his condition. The longer the second or hidden blockage remains the more damage to the cardiac muscle happens.
The two blockages are in the bottom of his heart just below a branching artery -one block to each side(not much detail) which happens only in 20 percent of heart attacks(the rest being with major named heart arteries). The two doctors who are watching my dad at the hospital are trying to rule out a disease or blockage higher up that could have fallen to these minor blood vessels. They said that there could be another minor event tonight or tomorrow if this is the case. Its something so rare that they cant rule the possibility out and it is REALLY worrying all of us. They could not find the bigger blockage or disease on the angiogram when he was first admitted There was too much detail for them to spot it.
The bottom of his heart (again I don't know which part as in very bottom--small section or whole ventricle, etc) is also not functioning well and its too early to tell what the source of the attack was. He has suffered cardiac damage already but its not forced retirement or widowmaker level thankfully.
This is baring any larger event within the next 48 hours. I have a friend on 24/7 notice just incase my dad has a 'widowmaker' overnight
He is currently in a Cardiac Care unit and under 24/7 watch and bed-rest with a whole bunch of equipment hooked up to him. He is in good spirits but is very scared as a similar event killed his mom.
[
We got more test results in and some more details as to what happened to my dad. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes they are much appreciated. WE are not out of the woods yet but overnight and today his prognosis has improved.
There were definitely two blockages in his heart but the one that couldn't be unblocked during angioplasty was near the top of his heart. Because the artery where it happened was so small the cardiologist isn't worried about it. There is a diagram on a whiteboard inside his CCU suite showing where exactly the blockages were. They also put a stent into the bigger blockage at the bottom of his heart to prevent a re-occurrence.
The blockages in his heart turned out to be blood clots and not arterial plaques. In fact his cholesterol numbers are ideal. He is on blood thinners(good insurance against more clots), of course, and they changed his blood pressure medicine which seems to be working. As I said before the type of attack he has was in the 20th percentile so they are not ruling out anything from a clotting problem to an inherited birth defect (narrow and hourglass shaped heart arteries) to abnormal clotting issues to DVT and circulation problems. The cardiologists are literally scratching their heads as to a root cause. They are by far though not out of diagnostic testing and other tools to investigate.
So far permanent damage has been minimized and the heart can re-route itself but this will be a recovery that will take months. He remains on bed-rest within the cardiac care unit and is in much better spirits today. he is very much active and full of vigor. He will remain in bed over the weekend until they do a stress test on Monday. We are looking for him to be out of the hospital in about a week and a half
If anyone is out there my dad suffered a heart attack today.
I hope everyone understands what I'm about to say but i need your prayers at least for the next week while they figure out what happened and put him back on recovery. Right now best case is a week in the hospital and 2 months at home. Out of work of course and maybe longer if his heart takes more permanent damage. I may or may not set up a GFMe to help with the loss of income but ill look into that more after the anxiety calms down.
He was taken by ambulance to hospital this afternoon but they caught it right away thankfully. He is in a lot of pain and they have him on morphine but he is still a bit in denial about the heart attack and is fighting bed-rest while on blood thinners and hooked up to an arterial tap in his arm - something that takes special handling.
He was just getting ready to give my mom her bath before the classic symptoms showed up, dry heaves and all. We did not have any asprin in my parents house but thankfully both my mom and sister knew what was happening right away and my sister, instead of driving to the wrong hospital convinced my mom to call an ambulance. They were there within 7 minutes and were able to do an EKG before they loaded him into the ambulance. I found out that they gave him nitro and whatever else on the way to the hospital through a "code 4 event".
They brought him to the Cardiac Centre (missed a 'widowmaker' event this way) here in Windsor (wont name the hospital but locals know) and within an hour he had an angioplasty done on one of two blockages seen on an Angiogram. They could not unblock the second blockage as he arterial layout of his heat near the 'bottom' had a lot of 'twists and turns' and it prevented access. It is still blocked now but they are watching it for damage. They scheduled him for an ultrasound tomorrow . They may try again to remove the second blockage tomorrow or Monday depending on his condition. The longer the second or hidden blockage remains the more damage to the cardiac muscle happens.
The two blockages are in the bottom of his heart just below a branching artery -one block to each side(not much detail) which happens only in 20 percent of heart attacks(the rest being with major named heart arteries). The two doctors who are watching my dad at the hospital are trying to rule out a disease or blockage higher up that could have fallen to these minor blood vessels. They said that there could be another minor event tonight or tomorrow if this is the case. Its something so rare that they cant rule the possibility out and it is REALLY worrying all of us. They could not find the bigger blockage or disease on the angiogram when he was first admitted There was too much detail for them to spot it.
The bottom of his heart (again I don't know which part as in very bottom--small section or whole ventricle, etc) is also not functioning well and its too early to tell what the source of the attack was. He has suffered cardiac damage already but its not forced retirement or widowmaker level thankfully.
This is baring any larger event within the next 48 hours. I have a friend on 24/7 notice just incase my dad has a 'widowmaker' overnight
He is currently in a Cardiac Care unit and under 24/7 watch and bed-rest with a whole bunch of equipment hooked up to him. He is in good spirits but is very scared as a similar event killed his mom.
[
I hope he pulls through and makes a full recovery.