Update on Mom

Greetings,

So Yesterday at 1:00 we had the all awaited appointment with the heart surgeon and he was very nice and prompt. We had an 1:30 appointment and we were in a exam room with him by 1:35. I was impressed by his promptness. I recorded all the conversations so I could refer back to what lingo he used and well for insurance reasons.. Malpractice anyone?

Ok heres the spill she is 100% blocked in both legs from her trunk thru her groin and it seems she is not showing any signs or symptoms of the blockage and the veins have created their own method of getting blood to her legs and proper circulation. They talked about her carotid artery on the right side of the neck and he believes that it is 99-100% blocked and the clots that caused moms “mini stroke in her eyes” was probably the final blockage and thinking that blood thinners will prevent this from re-occurring. Hew carotid artery on the left side is 50% blocked and is providing a good flow of blood to both sides of the brain. He wants to monitor the left side and if it gets to 60% or 70% he wants to operate. The leg issue he says until she starts to show signs of the cramping and fatigue then he isn’t to worried about it. He has ordered mom a stress test on her heart as well as a full blood work run. He has prescribed her Lipitor, Plavax, Atenolo and Chavix and the 81mg of aspirin a day. Needless to say mom went from Allegra to now a shitload of meds. They are hoping that thinning out the blood along with something to control the blood pressure will help the blockage and a cholesterol controller to prevent future blockage. Mom is now 1 week smoke free and taking chavix to help her with that. He has said that she is not out of the woods for surgery and if the stress test fails then we might be looking at bypass surgery. So until mom gets worse we are on a holding pattern that he said could be months or a year. he wants a MRI every 6 months on her left side to monitor the blockage.

Thats the scoop and the family is slowly getting the news and we aren’t withholding much of the info this time since it overall is good news for the short term. Mom is looking to return to work this week with light duty due to her incisions.