Another Heart Year

I thought I would share with you all a little bit more about the past ‘heart year’ and another one ahead of us. All of you know about Abi and all that happened last year. Few of you know about my dad.

Last year, around this time, on a Saturday morning, I woke up to a text message from my sister saying my dad had a heart attack and was in a hospital. Not the best way to start your day. Fortunately it was a mild heart attack and they ended up putting 2 stents in. Couple weeks later he was back home with a tiny pacemaker placed in his chest. Couple months later he went back to get the pacemaker adjusted and some tests run and even though he felt great and was doing really well, it was obvious it won’t be long term and one more stent would be needed. They scheduled the procedure for January 12 this year. It usually takes only couple days from planting a stent for the patient to be sent back home, so my parents started planning their visit to North Carolina. They pre-booked their tickets and planned on being here March 11^th. On January 12^th, my dad went to see his cardiologist, they did another cath just to find out they couldn’t plant another stent and he would require an open-heart bypass surgery. Yes, you read that right. We just can’t get a break.

He has already seen the cardio thoracic surgeon, talked everything over and just this past Wednesday found out he will be admitted to the hospital in a bit over one week, February 22^nd and the surgery will be done on the 23^rd or 24^th.

Even though it’s a more routinely performed surgery, it’s still dangerous. The surgery will take about 3 hours and will have to stop the heart for some time. The good thing is, he’s still young, in a great physical condition and in good health, so the perspectives are really good and he should recover quickly, if there are no complications.

If everything goes well, they will be here May or June this year, to see Abi first time live (so far it’s been video conferences only and she’s almost 7 months old now).

So if there is still some room in your prayer books, on your prayer lists, whatever you have, I will appreciate if you squeeze him in and keep him in your prayers.

Art