Father in law in the hospital, pretty bad shape

[jeepwm69 7,732]

Wife's dad is 75.   He had triple bypass at age 46 (1996), 10 stents since, type 2 diabetic who doesn't attempt to manage his diabetes.   In short, he doesn't take care of himself at all and never really has.

 

So last week he had a heart attack.   Local hospital shipped him out to one 1.5 hours away.   They found 2 of his 3 bypasses were totally blocked, with the 3rd bypass on his main heart artery (LAD) 99% blocked.   He was in kidney failure as well from his diabetes.   The stent he had put in back in April of this year had already failed, so more stents won't fix him.   That hospital said it was more than they could do so they eventually sent him to St Louis.

 

He's been there 2 days.  They want to do open heart surgery on him again, replacing that LAD bypass with another bypass.   They have to stop his heart and put him on bypass to do the surgery, then restart his heart.  Huge risk that they won't be able to get his heart restarted given how poor his health is.

 

I've been on the road or in a hospital room for the last week, and will likely head back to St Louis in the next couple of days, depending on when the schedule the surgery.

 

Anyhow, ya'll keep my wife in your prayers.  She lost her mom to a heart attack in 2006, and my wife was only 21 at the time.  She has enough of a medical background to know how poor her dad's odds are in having  the surgery, with the alternative likely being a stroke or another heart attack, so she's having a hard time.

[LedFTed 1,140]

Prayers sent,

[SlammedRanger 1,560]

Man sorry to hear. Take care bud! Praying for the best possible outcome!

[bcsman 1,405]

Jeep so sorry to hear about your FIL's health.  I will put him and the family on my prayer list...keep us updated on his progress please.

[retro 4,072]

Let us know how we can help your family Jeep. I'm gonna send ya a lil' something to help with gas and whatever.

[_Wilson_™ 6,593]

Sorry to hear about that jeep be thinking about yaw … be sending something here too  

[jeepwm69 7,732]

The doctors said they aren't sure they can do much.  His heart and arteries are in such bad shape that they don't think a bypass redo will work. They're doing an MRI early next week, when his kidneys have recovered a bit from the last test with contrast they did (he's in kidney failure, so a lot of the imaging they do use contrast and it's hard on the kidneys).  
 

He's lived his whole life "like a sailer on shore leave" as my BIL put it, so we've known eventually this would come.  I like working, but I hate exercising for the sake of exercising, and most of the food that I like is really bad for me.  I look at living to  75 doing whatever I want versus possibly living longer while exercising and eating healthy crap that doesn't taste good,  and you really have to weigh which is the better path. 
 

Anyhow, we're home for a few days till the doctors figure out what, if anything, they can do for him.  I even put a new rearend in @basfnb's Rubicon yesterday afternoon. I like to stay busy when I'm stressed. 
 

Your well wishes and prayers are very much appreciated, and I will relay them to the wife. 

 

 

[LedFTed 1,140]

Well, their are other doctors, perhaps that could help. IDK,,.. it does sound bad.. I'd like to think their is always hope. i can tell you from personal experience at the VA, the 1st., doctor i had would only work on one problem at a time. only seeing her every 6 month's., progress was slow. so, i began asking her questions,and complaining a bit.  i thought it was VA policy.. she got kinda ornery. so i dropped her. she had a sign on her wall saying listen to the patients, what a joke.. the 2nd., she worked on multiple problems at once. she looked mean, kinda, a no BS person. and she was. she looked irish/scottish, a shorter lady, but was nice, and got things done. she used to scold me all the time for making a ruckus in the hallway, cutting up with the staff and such. i liked her a lot.

[AKATV 842]

Sorry to hear of this Jeep, your family will be in my thoughts

Dont run yourself down, I have a habit of staying too busy in times like this

Take care and will be thinking of you all...

 

 

[jeepwm69 7,732]

He's home.   They did a wire down through his LAD to try to clean it out a bit, then stented it again.  Hopefully this one will last for awhile (the one he had in April of this year had already failed).

 

They stopped at Lambert's Cafe on the way home from St Louis.  Home of the "throwed rolls".   He got baked chicken (good) with fried potatoes (very bad), potato salad (very bad) lima beans (kinda bad) and I'm sure a roll or 3.   Ordered Diet Mountain Dew, and thought they might have given him regular Mountain Dew.  Anyhow, his blood sugar spiked to over 600, so he ended up in the ER in Blytheville AR which is about 1/2 way home.  They wanted to admit him and ship him out to Memphis or Jonesboro, but he declined and went on home.

 

He's going to have to make some major life changes or he won't be here long.  Wife got a little ! at him and said "Dad, stop drinking soft drinks and drink WATER.  YOU"RE IN KIDNEY FAILURE!"

 

So for now, he's home.  Weak, but seems to be doing ok for the time being.   Not sure if he'll be able to climb into a deer stand this year, but I gotta get his lightbar put on his Can Am SxS just in case.

[bigcountry78 103]

Jeez man, sorry to hear all that. Haven’t been on in a while, but my father in law just had quadruple bypass surgery last week, Friday to be exact. He’s supposed to come home today. They did the whole open heart surgery, stop the heart deal in a hospital 1.5 hours away so I can relate. Hopefully reality will sink in for your father in law and he’ll do his part to turn it around. If it was me, I’d want to hang around for my grandchildren.