My dad had a string of heartattacks in the past 10 years. The first one happened when i was finishing middle school. they had to do an angio plasti and a quadruple coronary bipass operation. They took some veins out of his legs and replaced the ones connected to his heart because they had closed shut. He was out for a good while, too. we got him a hospital bed at home and he slowly regained his strength. he has a series of metal staples in his chest from when they spread his rib cage apart and has nightmares of his stay in the hospital because one of his roommates died while she was screaming for help one night he was there. We had to call the ambulance a couple of other times after that because he would have severe chest pains. Last year, he also had a stroke for the first time and it left his speech impaired and he is a bit confused sometimes. After a while, his nitro pills didnt work that much, and so one night a big one hit and he had to go again. They said they couldnt do anything for him, that his veins had closed again and they couldnt open them and so we should keep him on medicine until he died at home. We all started getting ready for the worse and spend a whole week fearing that he was going to die at any moment. Our family doctor had some contacts and made a last ditch attempt to saave my dads life by having this world famous cardiologist to take a look at my dads medical chart and history.
http://www.scrippsclinic.com/physicians ... fm?id=2060
This doctor agreed to take my dad as his patient and so he was transported to Scripps Clinic in La Jolla. Seriously, this center is a huge difference when you think of hospitals, everything is state of the art and they have the brightest doctors in the world there. He took my dad in and opened as many veins as he could and left some shunts in there to keep them open. When my dad woke up, he said he felt the difference immediately and has felt better than he did before his first couple of heart attacks. He spends his days watching tv and babysitting my nephew now. He takes a couple of naps per day, has to eat healthy and because of his low blood pressure, he has to sit when he pees happy: . I thought that was funny when the doc told me that so i said 'now i have two moms.' Keep your hopes up, but most importantly remember this. Your dad is probably going to be differant after this ordeal, especially if he has surgery. He will probably be a alot more irritable and grumpy. You might notice some forgetfullness too, but just hang in there. My dad can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, but Im glad hes still around for now. Dont be shy to get second opinions either, sometimes doctors wont give you all the options you have because of insurance issues, or other stuff. Also, keep special attention to what kind of medicine he is on and the side effects. We had a series of bad nursing episodes when he was at his usual hospital, the nurses sometimes make costly mistakes. Just keep an interest in what they give your dad and what instructions he has to follow. Oh yeah, do some background checks on your dads doctors on the internet, its always helpful to know what his experience is.
heart attacks
heart attacks -
08-21-2004, 02:25 PM
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