Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Dad's surgery-Triple Bypass!

Mom and Dad before Surgery.


Dad being prepped for Surgery!


Gotta love him!



They aren't nervous, well maybe a little:)





Trying to get some work done before the big surgery!






My dad has been having chest pain for the last couple of weeks and he went to the doctor and had some blood work done. The blood work came back elevated, so they had a chemical stress test ordered . That also didn't go so well. So on Wed, of last week Dad went in for an Angiogram. A couple hours later I recieved a frantic call from mom saying that they were taking dad by ambulance to another hospital in Des Moines that is considered the Heart Specialty hospital. We were then told that Dad would be undergoing a Triple Bypass. Which is a open heart surgery. Needless to say we were freaked out. My dad is 53. And this seemed way to much! On thursday he underwent the surgery, Dr. Pandhakar performed it. They harvested a vein from his right leg, left arm and used one from his chest. They then rerouted his arteries and closed him up. The surgeon said everything went very well. We then got moved to ICU. My mom wouldn't leave my dad's side and needed to sleep, so I stayed at night so she could go sleep in the waiting room, since they wouldn't let us sleep in the room with dad. For 2 days I ran on 2 hours of sleep. Now I remember why I don't work the night shift anymore. But I did get some major reading in:) Dad then got moved to Cardiac/Telementry unit and has steadily made progress. He will be coming home tomorrow. Yeah! I never want to go through that again. It's amazing how you look at life and the things that are the most important to you are relized when a person's mortality is at stake. I love my dad and am so glad that he is in my life!