OK. So. We went to see dad yesterday. They had transferred him to York hospital because they have the cath lab there and a stellar cardio group.
The good news is that 1) this thing that has been happening (for 3-4 years!!) isn't life-threatening, it is fairly common and treatable. Dad is coming home today. Mom is going to get him.
The bad news is that the procedure they had scheduled for yesterday (called an EPS, similar to a cardio cath) they had him all prepped and were into it about an hour before the doc decided he wasn't going to proceed because 1) dad's heart rate and breathing slowed down enough to be dangerous, and 2) the doc just didn't realize how large dad was until he saw him on the table. The combination of these two things made it too dangerous to proceed without an anesthesiologist there, so the doc called it off.
SO. Dad is being sent home with a 2-4 month monitor and instructions to loose weight.
I do not envy my mom.
That was an outcome that probably was obvious, but I wasn't expecting. I WAS expecting them to do this proceedure and find all kinds of blockages in his arteries and we would be told he needed a sixteen-tupple bypass surgery.
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2 years ago
3 comments:
At least you're all a little farther into the situation/problem and it's being monitored. Whether he'll lose the weight that will greatly help his overall health or not will ultimately be his decision. As you say, an inforced change in eating habits is often harder on the person (your mom) living with and caring for the one needing to lose the weight!
It's so hard to see your parents having health problems. Try not to let it get you down. You can be up and encouraging, but he has to do the work himself.
Sounds like a very frustrating situation.
ZOMG, you have no idea. BUT. I have been working on the "(insert person) is not my responsibilty" attitude for a while now and that seems to be working. It is an important thing, I think, to realize that you are not responsible for babying someone or making them do something.
The problem with dad's eating habits is what he learned as a kid growing up in the south. Everything was deep fried. Seriously. And he once said to mom "Yes, but you grew up eating strange things like olives and mustard!" and he wasn't kidding.
But you can change, and he's not a stupid man. He could learn about proper nutrition and such if he wanted to, but he pretends that all that stuff is just beyond him so he doesn't try. It's a game he plays with himself, I think, and he uses it to manipulate people (especially mom) into doing things he doesn't want to do himself.
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