Hi all,
Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Ever since I started back to work a few weeks ago, I've been feeling so exhausted when I'm home that I hardly ever even turn the computer on! I do try to check my email at least once a day, so I can usually be reached that way, though!
So anyway - at the end of June, my grandparents moved up here to West Chester, PA from their condo in Sarasota, Florida. They aren't exactly in assisted living yet, but they moved into a 3-stage community, and they are still in the independent part. Since they've got up here, it has been a LOT of running around trying to get them to various doctors. I hate to say this, but the doctor they had in Florida was TERRIBLE, IMHO. I was so relieved when we found them a great doctor up here, and she wants to totally change the way things have been going.
My grandfather is the current concern. He's 86 years old, and actually in fairly good health. When he was a child, he had TB of the bone and was in the hospital for 2 years and has a fused hip. He's on a few meds, and he had a TIA a few years back, as well as emergency surgery for a hernia strangulating his appendix maybe 6 months ago or so, but all in all, he's in pretty good health. He's had swelling in his feet for some time, but his doc in Florida had just put him on a diuretic. As we found out recently, that doctor had identified a leaky mitral valve in the heart, but hadn't done anything about it or pursued it further or rechecked it.
So my grandparents went through the stress of moving up here, and my grandfather's feet had been very very swollen as of late. At first the new doc just had him restrict his salt, but the feet kept getting worse, so she sent him for some tests. Turns out, he has very severe damage to the mitral valve with some lung damage and hence some mild heart failure. They've just gone to the new cardiologist yesterday (whom they liked immensely) and now he's got to go to a CT surgeon. He needs to have open heart surgery to repair the mitral valve in about the next 3 months.
The docs say that if he doesn't get the surgery, he will decline and probably only have 1-2 more years to live, but if he has the surgery, he could live 5-10 more years. At 86 years of age, it's always a risk looking at surgery, but he's going to go ahead with it. Seems as though he is in good enough health, and they will do thorough testing prior to his surgery. So if anyone has some spare vibes for my grandparents, it will be much needed!! We don't know when he will have the surgery yet, as he still has to meet with a few surgeons up here. They said it will be about a week in the hospital, then about 2 weeks in rehab, then he can go home. My mom and I decided that one of us will probably spend the night there as much as we can once he comes home to help out. Not sure how that will work, but we'll see!
One other bit of news on my stimulator - had finally a good post-op neurosurgery appointment this past Wednesday! A couple of weeks ago, I went to the surgeon's for more draining, and they said the neck incision was definitely infected. So I started on more antibiotics and had a dressing on it for awhile, but it's finally gotten better! When he first diagnosed the infection, he pushed a lot of the infected fluid out of my neck with his hands, which wasn't the most comfortable of things, but at least it is healing up now! I am still having good results, especially for CH - still only having 0-2 hits/day most of the time. I have made 3 weans on my one med, but we are going to hold here for a little bit because I started having increased migraine pain, but it has been better today at least! I'm very pleased with how it is working!!
Anyway - just wanted to ask for some vibes for my grandparents and give a little upate on the stim! Hope all is well and that the convention was a blast!!
love and hugz,
Carrie
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My Family and an Update (Read 1560 times)
