In which my grandmother is sick.
So I got a call at work today from my stepfather telling me my grandmother had a "mini-stroke". Then he told me "don't freak out about it." Yeaaaaah, okay. My boss basically said "why are you still here?" and off I rushed to the hospital.
She's doing fine for right now. Apparently the doctors should avoid the term "mini-stroke" for this reason (I wish my stepfather had). However, the situation is still somewhat dire.
As the vascular guy explained to me, there's four main arteries that go to your brain; two in the back (forgot the name) and two in the front (the carotid arteries). Between those two carotid arteries, one is 99% (!!!) blocked, and the other is 70% blocked. That means surgery has to be done to clean her pipes. There's a risk of causing a stroke with this surgery, but not nearly as much of a risk as there would be if she DOESN'T get the surgery!
Thank you all for your hopes and prayers. The doctor made this sound like a very routine surgery... but I doubt a doctor would come in and act like there was something horribly wrong. Not very good for patient morale. Either way, I'm somewhat assured that she will come through this alright. She's only 67... I can't imagine losing her this soon...
She's doing fine for right now. Apparently the doctors should avoid the term "mini-stroke" for this reason (I wish my stepfather had). However, the situation is still somewhat dire.
As the vascular guy explained to me, there's four main arteries that go to your brain; two in the back (forgot the name) and two in the front (the carotid arteries). Between those two carotid arteries, one is 99% (!!!) blocked, and the other is 70% blocked. That means surgery has to be done to clean her pipes. There's a risk of causing a stroke with this surgery, but not nearly as much of a risk as there would be if she DOESN'T get the surgery!
Thank you all for your hopes and prayers. The doctor made this sound like a very routine surgery... but I doubt a doctor would come in and act like there was something horribly wrong. Not very good for patient morale. Either way, I'm somewhat assured that she will come through this alright. She's only 67... I can't imagine losing her this soon...