Sunday, November 9, 2008

Witness Protection is sounding about right

When a person goes into witness proctection, they get a whole new life. New people, new names, new town, new life. I've had about all I can take.
Brian's father George, has been sick for years. He had his first bypass about fifteen years ago. There is nothing that he hasn't gone through with his heart. Bypasses (2), stents, mechanical valve, heart attacks, mini strokes, AAA, CHF and now to top it all off, V-Tach.
Okay, for the non medical people. The heart has a natrual rhythm. Lub Thub. Even, steady. When is goes faster it's called Tachacardia. When it slows, it's Bradycardia. the V is ventricular. Basically, the lub thub is the noise of the valves of the heart opening and shutting again. Door A lub shuts and door B opens. Door B shuts thub and door A opens. The heart contracts top and bottom. This contraction moves the blood from one room to the other.
The V tach is a fast heart rate with the natural 2 step rhythm all wiggly. There is something electrical not allowing his heart to beat regularly.
There are a couple of fixes, that include shocking the heart like on ER or medications. But they have not shocked him yet, as the rate always comes back. So, the other fix is sticking in an internal defibulator. It will shock the heart from the inside as the rhythm gets wiggly.
It's an operation. But after all that is going on with George, he can't be safely on the operating table for more than 2 hours. There is a surgeon that comes to Kingston once a month from Westchester Medical Center and can generally do the operation in less than two hours.
Problem 1, he was here two weeks ago and won't be back for two weeks.
Problem 2, George can't wait for two weeks. This is so bad that it could kill him.
So, tomorrow, George is supposed to go to Westchester Medical Center to have the surgery.
Brian is going to drive his mother to he hospital in Westchester tomorrow, spend the night with her and then take the train from Westchester into the city to meet my father at Grand Central Station so that my father can go with Brian to his appointments with the surgeon on Tuesday. What a great birthday for Brian on Tuesday!
But with all the time I have taken off from work, I can't go with Brian and I don't really want to take Em to Westchester.
I had better go and get Brian's bag ready for tomorrow. He needs to pack light. I have to help him, if I can pry him away from Sunday night football.

1 comment:

Blade said...

Sorry to hear you have another big medical situation on your plate. You certainly didn't need anymore.

/hug