Some Shocking News....

Eldy has been feeling really really tired lately....although he's been playing golf two to three times a week, the rest of the time he's been feeling exhausted. He's been taking way too many naps in his recliner lately. He's also had a few episodes of major heartburn, a little bit of chest pain. (Sparky told him to get it checked out but he didn't feel it was serious enough and the times that he had it were very few and far between up till now). His cholesterol is very good, there is nothing elevated there. But we noticed in the last six months in addition to his fatigue levels, that his blood pressure had been climbing a little bit. He has been complaining of shortness of breath off and on over the last two years. He has had yearly checkups but nothing stood out as alarming to doctors that he saw. He always attributed that to "white coat syndrome" because he gets nervous when visiting the doctor. He went to his family doctor, and after looking at different possibilities--dehydration and a few other things, his family doctor suggested that he see a cardiologist.  He was given blood pressure medicine to help regulate the pressure for the time being. Heart disease runs majorly in his family. One brother had six bypasses, and two heart attacks after that, a sister had a stent put in. There definitely seems to be a structural heart disease genetic component in Eldy's family.

There are several different types of stress tests. Many people are familiar with the treadmill/exercise stress test. Depending on your age and physical fitness, the doctors can do different types. The doctor did not do the treadmill one, but one of the others instead for Eldy.

• Dobutamine or Adenosine Stress Test: This test is used in people who are unable to exercise. A drug is given to make the heart respond as if the person were exercising. This way the doctor can still determine how the heart responds to stress, but no exercise is required.
• Stress echocardiogram: An echocardiogram (often called "echo") is a graphic outline of the heart's movement. A stress echo can accurately visualize the motion of the heart's walls and pumping action when the heart is stressed; it may reveal a lack of blood flow that isn't always apparent on other heart tests.
• Nuclear stress test: This test helps to determine which parts of the heart are healthy and function normally and which are not. A small amount of radioactive substance is injected into the patient. Then the doctor uses a special camera to identify the rays emitted from the substance within the body; this produces clear pictures of the heart tissue on a monitor. These pictures are done both at rest and after exercise. Using this technique, areas of the heart that have a decreased blood supply can be detected.

The doctor found an abnormality in one of his chambers. The doctor said he couldn't tell from the test whether it was major or minor, it was somewhat hidden. He said that sometimes medication could take care of it or sometimes it necessitates surgery, so he scheduled an angioplasty this past week to get a better idea of what we were looking at. We were expecting a stent possibility, a minor blockage, something like that.

After the angioplasty, the doctor told Eldy he had blockages all over the place. He said that Eldy was looking at SIX bypasses. We were shocked! The surprising part of all this is that they did NOT put him in the hospital immediately, but that a couple of days have gone by since we found this out. We are thinking that although six bypasses is severe, that perhaps the degree of blockages are not severe enough to warrant immediate hospitalization. The report is currently being sent to the surgeon and on Monday, we should be hearing when the surgery is going to take place. It should be sometime this coming week....

Before anybody says that Eldy should be in the hospital NOW and not waiting, (which is the hard part), know that this area has many, many qualified cardiologists and surgeons. If the cardiologist felt that it was not necessary for him to be admitted immediately, we trusted that decision. The cardiologist has excellent credentials. What we didn't realize is that the cardiologist does not perform open heart surgery. It will be done by a cardiothoracic surgeon. The open heart surgery is going to happen this week so we know that he's going to be well taken care of and soon. He is resting and taking it easy till that happens.

If anybody has experience with bypass surgery and what recovery is like, we'd be grateful to hear. We're just not sure how much assistance will be needed at home. We're sure we will be much better informed after hearing from the surgeon's office on Monday. Sparky will do her best to be a good Nurse Sparks.

We will keep everybody informed as to his progress and recovery.....Thanks for still being here to read us!

A Terrific Visit to Houston

A short, catch up blog today....Sparky went to Houston over the holidays to visit her youngest daughter and her little grandson, who's now 3 1/2.  It was a busy time but we managed to cram a lot of things into our visit...

We went to the Houston zoo, a really beautiful zoo, which is nicely laid out and saw elephants tussling with their tusks, and rhinos pushing and shoving each other....among many other wonderful exhibits. there's a marvelous children's section where kids can explore and play and have a great time. For more about the Houston Zoo, see here....http://www.houstonzoo.org

Sparky babysit her little grandson while her daughter went to work and participated in wrestling matches and tussling contests. Barron accidentally head butted Sparky one day and she heard a loud CRACK! And it wasn't her glasses that broke! We're not sure, but think there was a possibility of a slight fracture. Sparky iced it immediately, but it remained swollen and sore for several days....Three weeks later, and it's still a little tender....

We had fun making faces with each other...Barron would say, "GRANDMA!" as in "LOOK!" and he'd make a funny face.

Sparky would try to outdo him with an even crazier expression and he would erupt in peals of laughter. Every night he would ask Grandma to read him a story and tuck him in, quietly talking a little bit before going to sleep. We had some amazing conversations. He had five dinosaur silhouettes on his wall, and Grandma called them out one by one, "Oh, I see you have a Tyranosaurus Rex, a triceratops, a pterodactyl, a stegosaurus...." making conversation. But she accidentally got one out of order. HE says, "Actually, it's a...." and proceeds to name all five of them with their full scientific names IN ORDER. All righty, then...this kiddo is going to be a mover and a shaker some day! At least, that's what we hope for our grandchildren, and for them to be happy and healthy, too...Kerry is doing a great job of taking care of him and nurturing him to his fullest potential. He's almost ready to read, his daycare says!

We went to see a great kids' movie called The Good Dinosaur, by Pixar and put out by Disney. Sparky just loves Pixar movies... It was very good but a little on the scary side at times for a three year old. He managed to sit through just about entire movie with the help of popcorn, and then sat on Grandma's lap for the last fifteen minutes. Grandma didn't mind that at all....

The days went quickly by...Christmas was over in a heartbeat, and soon it was time for Grandma Sparky to head back home.....  :-(  Thank goodness for technology and being able to stay in touch a lot more easily when there's a lot of distance involved.....Until next time......