Heading Into May

Once again it's been a couple of weeks since the last post and that's a good thing. Dad's feeling pretty good and is getting back to his old schedule, working out five days a week several dinners out with friends every week, not to mention his church activities. It's enough to tire a young man out.

He saw the pacemaker doctor last week. Everything looks good and they are starting him back on Coumadin (blood thinner.) At some point I suspect they will talk about mitral valve replacement, but as of now he does not have an appointment with his cardiologist.

The important thing is that he is feeling better. After his last doctor visit  I asked him if he was feeling better. He said he was but that he still gets tired very easily.

I asked him if he remembered how exhausted and out of breath he was when he bent over to tie his shoes when we saw the surgeon and scheduled the valve replacement. From that day's blog entry:

"The most important factor is that Dad wants to proceed. He was out of breath after bending over and tying one shoe.

"All I know is that I just can't go on like this!"

Dad said he remembered and I asked him if still got that exhausted and frustrated and he said, "No."

In addition to the shortness of breath, the other major symptom of mitral regurgitation is waking up at night unable to breath. Dad described it as waking up panicked. (Because the ventricle can't push the blood all the way through the valve, the valve lies open when in the horizontal position. Blood can't get to the lung and oxygen can't get to the body.) I asked him he was sleeping better. He said yes, he was not waking up panicked.

The sum of these points is that the third lead to the ventricle has improved, if not cured the leaky valve. That will give him the full time necessary to recover from the two surgeries. That should take at least a couple of months.

So now we're making plans for his 90th birthday celebration in June. Should be a glorious affair. If you're reading this, consider yourself invited!

Mary was in town this weekend. Here's a picture of her and Dad standing on the spot in the garden where we buried Mom's ashes, so I guess she's in the picture too.