Okay - the details of the conversation held by the cardiac doctor with Dad, Les and Janet. Dad has run out of options, there were 3 told to us, but 2 are extremely risky. First was bypass surgery due to the heart attack he suffered but she felt he would not pull through the surgery. Second was an angioplasty, however they cannot use either leg or his right arm for this due to his issues with his circulation and blood clots. He can only have it done with his left arm which also has some major risks because of the graft he has in that arm. They are concerned they could ruin the graft and therefore to do the surgery is risky as well. However the doctor did say, if Dad and the family decided, she would get the surgeon in to discuss further, but that she doesnt feel it is worth the risk and his quality of life would not improve and could in fact get worse. So, option 3 is to keep him on meds to keep him comfortable. She did not in any way state how long he has, or if he will be unable to leave the hospital. She is also very concerned about the blood clots because he is on so much heparin that he shouldnt be having the blood clots. She had ordered a Cat scan for later today to see what is going on. The Dr. thinks that there is a major blockage by his heart and is concerned that blood clots are affecting his lungs. She cant confirm but persistent blood clots like this can be malignant but again she could not confirm that at this time. She did bring up that Dad has already stated he doesnt want any heroic efforts to say his life, and that we as a family need to help him decide the next steps. His biggest concern was Mom and that she is taken care of. We told him that we will make sure that happens and right now he needs to concentrate on himself. Dr. Alvarez was wonderful and also stated that they have an ipad at the nurses station that goes into detail about angioplasty if we wanted to watch it. So this is to provide further clarity to my earlier status. Thanks to Janet for providing this!
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 03:56:29 +0000
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