Prayers/Good Thoughts

[Neon_Chaos]

Hey all,

Thanks for taking the time to read this thread.

Last Wednesday, my father had a severe bout of dizziness while playing golf. He was taken to the clubhouse clinic and was attended to by the doctor on staff at the time. After taking my father's ECG, the doctor had him rushed to the hospital, since he was experiencing Ventricular Tachycardia.

I get the phone call, and rush to hospital to meet him there. When I arrived, my mother was already there in the emergency room, along with my father's cardiologist, a family friend. The nurses and doctors there were all busy with the look of worry on their faces. The cardiologist had pulled me aside and told me that while my father was conscious, his heart was beating at an alarming rate (169 bpm). At that rate, his heart was going to give out within three hours. The only option was to jump-start his heart to normalize his heart rate. There was a chance that he wasn't coming back.

After talking to my father for almost 30 minutes and convincing him to have them shock his heart, he finally agreed. I was essentially saying goodbye to him before the procedure was done... probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do. My mother couldn't bear watching, so I had to sit her down outside the ER while I watched as the doctors there sedate my dad.

So, they sedated him, and used a defribulator to attempt and reset his heart rate (first time i've ever seen one used outside of watching it on TV). The heart monitor flatlined for one second.... and then, heartbeats! His heartrate dropped down to 140... 120... 90... 70... he was safe! I clapped out of sheer joy, and the dozen doctors around us clapped as well (most of these guys haven't seen the defrib used on a conscious patient... almost all of the time the guys coming in already had no pulse.).

The family friend cardio told me that he was very, very, very lucky. They had never seen a VTac on a conscious patient before. They usually wheeled them in dead or unsconscious. Now that he was out of the danger zone, we needed to know what caused the VTac.

Last Friday, he had an angiogram done... and they found that three of his main arteries were at a critical stage (70, 80, and 90% blockage), and that the posterior part of his heart was technically no longer working due to a previous myocardial infarction (deduced to have happened three years ago, and that my father never told us.). My father was going to need a bypass... not just a bypass, a quadruple bypass. Good thing that my uncle (mom's first cousin) is the best cardiac surgeon in the Philippines, and that he was just about to head back to his offices in Washington DC next week. (imagine the coincidence)

So, that leads us to either Tuesday or Wednesday (depending on when they get him scheduled). My dad will be undergoing a quadruple bypass operation under the best doctors in the country... and yet, I am still scared shitless.

I'd like to believe that my father was given a second chance in life. And that IF there is someone up there (always been a doubter, agnostic, whatever you call it.), that he wouldn't be so cruel as to give him back to us for five more days only to take him again.

It's going to cost us a fortune to get the operation done... but I have already set aside almost all of my savings to chip in.

Just need your prayers/good thoughts to get him through this safely.

Thanks for reading.

[tyketime]

I hope everything goes well for your father.

[spleen1015]

Best wishes to you, your father and your family.

[MizzouRah]

That had to be horrible what you went through.. glad he's ok and I will pray for him and your family.

[BYU 14]

Definitely sending prayers to your Dad and your entire family NC. Wish him all the best!

[Antmeister]

Your father is in my thoughts. I wish you and all of your family the best outcome possible.

[DougW]

Best wishes NC .

I know it won't help you sleep better, but know this - bypass surgeries are quite common these days, and have a very high success rate. My own father had a quadruple 10 years ago (yep, still kickin it a decade later - and his heart doc says he's as good as ever), and I've had a couple friends who have had a double and triple. All of them were out of surgery and back "at it" much faster than you'd think after a HEART SURGERY. Hope it all goes well

[Logan]

Best wishes buddy.

[Kodos]

Sending good thoughts your way.

[Bad-example]

Sending good thoughts.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Good luck, man. Definitely sending good toughts to you and your dad.

[Dodgerchick]

Thoughts and prayers my friend.

[Mike D]

I wish him all the best and hope he is okay. My thoughts and prayers for you and your family.

[cuervo72]

Hoping for the best, N_C.

[Glengoyne]

Best of Luck. Two of the most important men in my life, my father and father in law have gone through the procedure. Both came through in great shape, and looked and felt better than they had in years.

[Neon_Chaos]

Thanks guys! Operation went well. Ended up being a triple bypass with dor procedure. Dad is doing fine. Still recovering in ICU, but we expect to move him to a regular room today.

[MizzouRah]

Great to hear!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

Thanks guys! Operation went well. Ended up being a triple bypass with dor procedure. Dad is doing fine. Still recovering in ICU, but we expect to move him to a regular room today.

Didn't see this thread until now, awfully happy to see the latest post.

I'd be typing a small novel to try to tell you how many different strands of heart problems run through my family. I'll skip that, but will add my anecdotal report of many successful bypass surgeries on those same relatives. Major improvements in not only life span but also quality of life pretty much across the board from them. There are no guarantees, but the odds of this being a major success seem to be very good.

Thoughts & prayers with him, and with the family. Going through something like this as a loved one is enough to give you, well, heart trouble