A Visit with the Heart Surgeon

I spent the day with mom at the hospital. She is feeling better, and the doctors allowed her to get up and move around. They brought a nice big chair into the room so she can sit up and crochet/read. The bed is quite uncomfortable after a while.

Our goal right now is to get all the information needed to make a good decision about what we should do next. Diabetes and a kidney transplant add to our complications and make this decision a bit harder than it might otherwise be. Mom's nephrologist, Dr. Tucker, came by to speak with us briefly. He made some adjustments in her insulin requirements to get her blood sugars under better control, and he told us that our next step is to get her kidney functioning at its baseline level again. The dye they had to use for the angiogram is toxic, and her kidney has to work hard to filter it from her blood. Her creatinine level was 1.8 when she arrived at the hospital on Thursday, and after this procedure, it is now at 2.5. This is evidence that the kidney is working hard and not functioning at its best. Any procedure that we decide on must wait until the kidney is back in proper working order. So it will be a while before she leaves the hospital.

Dr. Tucker says that his first instinct is to lean toward an angioplasty and stints to solve the blockage problem. It is the least invasive,which is best for mom in her condition.

Later this afternoon, the heart surgeon, Dr. Curtis, came by to talk to us. He had consulted with mom's cardiologist, Dr. Finley, and Dr. Tucker earlier in the day. He is an experienced heart surgeon who worked extensively with transplant patients in WA. He detailed what he would do if he did surgery, and explained the risks to us. He emphasized that mom has options. He wants to hear from Dr. Kramer, who would perform an angioplasty, to see how comfortable/confident he feels about the procedure. If he thinks it can be done, then that will be the first choice.

One neat thing about the afternoon was that I used my computer to Skype Anne in from Atlanta. We spent about 2 hours video chatting and she was able to join our meeting with the heart surgeon. It was so wonderful to have her there in the room with us!

Mom is in Room 233 at Providence, and she can take phone calls. Feel free to give her a call and help her break the monotony. Or leave us a comment here now and then, and I'll make sure she gets them. Thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts. We truly appreciate them.