Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Waiting.....

It's 1:30 in Birmingham, AL and Mac is now in surgery. I spoke to the cardiac surgeon yesterday and he told me Mac has to have his micro valve replaced because it's heavily calcified. He has pulminary vascular hypertension which has caused his tricuspid valve to be in such terrible shape that they will have to repair or replace that one. His aortic valve might be able to be repaired but if he has to replace it, that means a full blown chest open heart surgery.

What's so frustrating is that Mac has known about this for 2 years. His doctor told him he needed heart surgery to fix his micro valve and Mac being the stubborn goat he is, and living out in the Mississippi boonies for the last 25 years, and never having had surgery of any kind...put it off! 2 years ago I decided that the internet was Mac's enemy. He convinced Paul & I that he needed a certain kind of heart surgery called the DaVinci Method and that he needed to have it done at the Cleveland Clinic. So, Paul & I thought both Mac and my mom could come up here and Mac could have the surgery and he could recuperate here and we would help him and take care of him. A tricky part was convincing my mom to make the trip up here. Wendy and I talked my mom into it and after getting that all settled, Paul asked Mac when the Dr. wanted to see him here in Cleveland etc. That's when Mac told us that his Dr. didn't say he needed the DaVinci method...Mac read about it online! Sheesh, what a let down. So from that day forward, Mac did all kinds of research online and actually scared himself to death about having open heart surgery.

When my sister went down to MS to help my mom get into a nursing home, Mac was at the hospital meeting with a cardiac surgeon in Gulfport and because they don't do the DaVinci Method there, he checked himself out against doctors orders. The only place close to MS we could find was the hospital in Birmingham. Luckily the cardiac surgeon, Dr. Lewis was kind enough to speak to Wendy and set up an appointment to see Mac. So, that was over a week ago and now Dr. Lewis is working on Mac. He told me if the aortic valve could be repaired, then he wouldn't have to go through the front of his chest and ribcage.

Wendy left this morning to drive down and be with Mac so at least he has "a" family member there when he wakes up. It's too heartbreaking to think of him all alone. I'll go down and relieve Wendy in a week or so..that's the plan anyway. But...I know how quickly plans can change.

I hope soon that my posts here are going to be more on a happier note with some scrapbook pages and grandchildren photos and stories.

For now, Dr. Lewis should call soon and I'm just waiting... Here's a picture of my mom, me and Mac at the nursing home:

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