Art's Dad at the Surgery

The surgery started at 8am in Poland (GMT+1). It was 2am here (EST).
It was supposed to last 3-4 hours, but when I was leaving home this morning (6:30am) the surgery wasn't done yet.
It's very different than here as far as passing the information about the surgery to the family members. First of all, the family has to call in to the hospital and ask for updates. Secondly, the only information they get is whether the patient is still in OR or not. Thirdly, the patients after the open heart surgery are not allowed to have visitors in CICU. How weird is that?
Anyway, we are awaiting more details.

J.

wersja polska

The Dates Are Set

This morning we got the confirmation that Abi needs to be in Atlanta for her pre-op on Tuesday, March 2 and her surgery will be on Wednesday, March 3. 

At the same time, this morning, they finished my dad's pre-op and set his surgery date for this Wednesday, February 24. His recovery is supposed to take 3-4 weeks. Abi should be home in less than a week. 

We'll keep you up-to-date.

Thank you for your prayers and support!!!!

Art

So Surgery It Is

This morning I spoke with Dr. Kirshbom and got some more information. Since Abi is doing so well and she hasn't been sick the best move would be to do the surgery as soon as possible; in Kirshbom's words better next week than in 2 weeks. The surgery itself will take about 3 to 4 hours, but most of it will be getting Abi ready. Once she's ready, and opened up and on bypass machine fixing the issue will take about 20 minutes. He said if she does as she did after the double switch she should be out in less than a week. This is what I am really looking forward to. Need to pray there will be no complications nor lung infections.

Today we have to call Atlanta and tell them if we want the surgery next Friday, Feb 26 or the following Wednesday, March 3.

We are still talking about it, since J doesn't want the surgery at all. Yeah, not that I want it, but I don't think we have other options.

Art

No Cath But...

1.03pm

The echo was sufficient and no cath is needed today. We will be going home soon just right after we schedule another open heart surgery ;-(

The cardiologist was surprised how well Abi's doing and how great everything else works, nevertheless correcting this issue should not wait longer than 3-4 weeks and can be done only through another open heart surgery.

The first plan was to do the surgery this Friday because they thought Abi was not doing well. Since that's not the case we will have to come back in couple weeks.

Another update soon.

Art


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Echo

11.04am

Right this moment Abi has her heart echo getting done. She's very calm watching the monitor and the cartoons on TV.

We talked to dr. Kim and the echo will determine whether she needs the cath done today or not. There is no doubt about the obstruction but if today's echo gives more details maybe no cath will be needed.

Once the echo is done dr. Kim will discuss the pictures with dr. Kirshbom (the surgeon) around noon and then we will talk again.

Learn from our mistakes Stupid thing to do, on the way to Atlanta we fed Abi ready formula (. For the first time. As soon as we got in she threw up all over the place and us.




More updates soon.

Art

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Atlanta Revisit

Echo and cath have been scheduled for Wednesday morning, though the exact time remains unknown. We will get a phone call tomorrow afternoon with the details about the time we should show up at Egleston, Atlanta.

They will perform echo and then Dr. Dennis W. Kim will do the cath. Hopefully they will be able to correct the issue then and no surgical intervention will be needed.

We will keep you updated.

Thank you for your support and your prayers ! 

Art

Another Heart Year

I thought I would share with you all a little bit more about the past ‘heart year’ and another one ahead of us. All of you know about Abi and all that happened last year. Few of you know about my dad.

Last year, around this time, on a Saturday morning, I woke up to a text message from my sister saying my dad had a heart attack and was in a hospital. Not the best way to start your day. Fortunately it was a mild heart attack and they ended up putting 2 stents in. Couple weeks later he was back home with a tiny pacemaker placed in his chest. Couple months later he went back to get the pacemaker adjusted and some tests run and even though he felt great and was doing really well, it was obvious it won’t be long term and one more stent would be needed. They scheduled the procedure for January 12 this year. It usually takes only couple days from planting a stent for the patient to be sent back home, so my parents started planning their visit to North Carolina. They pre-booked their tickets and planned on being here March 11^th. On January 12^th, my dad went to see his cardiologist, they did another cath just to find out they couldn’t plant another stent and he would require an open-heart bypass surgery. Yes, you read that right. We just can’t get a break.

He has already seen the cardio thoracic surgeon, talked everything over and just this past Wednesday found out he will be admitted to the hospital in a bit over one week, February 22^nd and the surgery will be done on the 23^rd or 24^th.

Even though it’s a more routinely performed surgery, it’s still dangerous. The surgery will take about 3 hours and will have to stop the heart for some time. The good thing is, he’s still young, in a great physical condition and in good health, so the perspectives are really good and he should recover quickly, if there are no complications.

If everything goes well, they will be here May or June this year, to see Abi first time live (so far it’s been video conferences only and she’s almost 7 months old now).

So if there is still some room in your prayer books, on your prayer lists, whatever you have, I will appreciate if you squeeze him in and keep him in your prayers.

Art