Went home Friday night to celebrate the winter and spring birthdays in the family. Great time had by all, etc.... I returned to Austin Saturday night listening to the 'horns getting beat by Duke (I have no idea why I thought they were to play OU).
Got a call from my sister yesterday that Mom had awakened Saturday night/early Sunday morning complaining of indigestion and an inability to sleep. Fortunately, one of my sisters had stayed the night with Mom.
Long story short: Mom spent last night in the East Texas Medical Center in Tyler, Texas and had a stress test for her heart today. She was so stressed before the test that the test was inconclusive. Tomorrow at 8:00 AM she has some kind of dye test to determine the extent, if any, of any heart blockage. I've been through dye tests when I had a vision scare and they aren't too difficult to endure. Mine was acutuall easy.
I spoke to Mom last night and just got off the phone with her tonight. She seems to be in good spirits now...taking this as some kind of wake up call to get on the stick as far as exercise, eating and sleeping goes. I didn't mention this but of those three only the sleeping can help at 81 years of age. Sure, she needs to eat more than she does but at this age she can't change whatever is going on in her heart by diet and exercise.
Options after tomorrow if there is blockage: drug therapy, stint or open heart surgery. I'm holding out hope that there is no blockage and that her inability to sleep Saturday night was a product of having the kids and grandkids around (and my uncanny ability to make her feel like c--p...we had a bit of a fight about the the Fayetteville Shale). Mom is a chronic worrier--a trait I fear she has passed on to her eldest son. Anybody else sleep only 5-6 hours a night?
So, any prayers or good thoughts are appreciated.
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4 comments:
Prayers and thoughts for you and her for sure. Did they really indicate that open heart surgery was an option? I only ask because of her age...
As for sleep, I've always been a light sleeper. After about 5 or so hours I used to wake up (enough to know that I was awake), turn over, and go back to sleep for about 45 minutes. I'd repeat this until I finally would get up.
After our house flood, no matter what time I went to bed, I would wake up at 3am and could not get back to sleep. This went on for many, many months. These days I sleep good and hard for about 4 hours, then off and on until I get up. But I am very aware of sounds and noises and am awake instantly when I hear something that sounds out of the norm.
Thanks, LJ.
They did indicate the surgery but only as a LAST resort. That is way too premature. I'll know more tomorrow.
I'm thinking/hoping that this is still nothing. Selfishly, I want to do whatever can be done...Medicare and taxpayers be d-----d. Cognitive Dissonance.
I'm right there with you on the sleeping thing. I expect it just part of getting older as much as I want it to be related to the special-ness of ME.
My thoughts with you and your mom, Scooter. Please do post about heart details if you wish when you know more. I do some work on cardiac technology. One of my partners "grew up" professionally at Medtronic and has oodles of contacts with docs and researchers and engineers in the cardiac field who left Medtronic and populated all kinds of cardiac technology companies in the Twin Cities, so we're kind of a hot bed, and my partner knows folks. Would be cool if we knew something useful for you. So many things can be done surgically without cracking the chest -- it's amazing. Can install valves, even.
Thank you, Steph.
I'll know more today and I'll try to update as best I can. Sometimes hard to figure out what is actually going on when talking to Mom. Get better intel talking to my sibs.
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