10/23 - Heart Attack Log

Thursday morning, we still don't know how much damage is done to Dad's heart. What we know at this time is that the front portion of the heart is operating at 60%, another portion is operating at 20% and the final portion was at around 25%. Dad had many places were the arteries were blocked 100%. The front portion of the heart is the part that needs the surgery to by-pass the 75-80% blocked artery where they could not put a stint. The doctors seem concerned at this point.

• 6:00am - Dad is still flat on his back and rather miserable. BUT he is starting to feel better and is not as nauseous as he has been.
• Kendra, Jason and Mom get to the hospital around 6:45am in order to make sure to catch Dr. Ritchie (the cardiologist) and get an update on what he knows. Dr. reports that Dad appears to be healing a tad better than expected and that the balloon pump can come out around 3:00pm.
• Kendra, Jason and Mom have to make a decision about open heart surgery and where to have it performed. After a couple hours of fact-finding, we decide to move Dad to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis to perform the surgery.
• At around 3pm, Dad is given a bunch of drugs to knock him out and the nurses remove the balloon pump. This process took about an hour and was pretty painful. After the pump was removed, a clamp-like device was put on the entry point to apply pressure on the artery and stop the bleeding. This just looked painful. Dad couldn't remember his name at this point and didn't seem to notice the pain.
• Dad stayed a little loopy for about 2 1/2 hours. This was BY FAR the most fun Mom and I had in the past 24 hours. Kendra unfortunately missed out on this because she left to go teach a college course.
• Dr. Ritchie visited and told us that all signs were pointing up. The blood work showed that Dad's heart is repairing itself and at this point, he didn't foresee any significant long-term damage to the heart.
• Dad was taken off his IV and other tubes and allowed to walk to the bathroom.
• Had Dad not had a vital artery still blocked 75-80%, Dad would have been sent home at this time. Instead, the Dr's want to watch his heart as they prepare to send him down for major surgery.
• Dad feels better than he has in months. His coloring is significantly better and his nausea is gone for the first time in 5 weeks. (Yeah - we know Dad should have read this sign better - or listened to his family and actually gone to the Doctor weeks ago)
• 10:00pm Dad fell asleep on his side with things at this point signaling a good recovery. We're not out of the woods yet, we still have a surgery to get through, but the urgent issues are under control.