repersonification: another rider on the storm
just got back from Dayton and the hospital where my dad was taken. he had his catheterization today and we found out definitively what is wrong with him. he has severe heart disease. six of the major arteries feeding his heart have severe blockage, the best of them is 70% blocked. in addition to this he has two leaky or bad valves which is what caused all of that fluid buildup pressing against his lungs. the muscles in his heart are very weakened and are pumping at less than half of normal strength. what the doctor also told us is that he did not have a heart attack on Sunday but he sees evidence that he had a minor one at some point in the past. the man is so stubborn and ornery that he had a heart attack and didn't even realize it. after some careful thinking he's pretty sure that it happened when he was moving out of his studio downtown around 3 years ago, what makes it even stranger is that his identical twin brother Tom died of a stroke at about the same time. but aside from the heart disease and some blood pressure issues he's in relatively good shape so they're releasing him tomorrow and them my mom and sister will bring him home so that he can have the bypass operation at Beaumont and recover from it at home with his family. things will never be the same again though, he'll be on meds for the rest of his life and for a few weeks after the surgery he'll be completely unable to take care of himself on even the most basic level. so tomorrow, my 23rd birthday, will be the last day that I can ever think of myself through the lens of youth.
all thing being equal though...
it could have been a whole hell of a lot worse
at least there's a treatment
and he's obviously a fighter
so I'm trying to be optimistic
for his sake as much as my own
all thing being equal though...
it could have been a whole hell of a lot worse
at least there's a treatment
and he's obviously a fighter
so I'm trying to be optimistic
for his sake as much as my own