/- bypass surgery

[Guest guest]

and Lois,

What a vacation! You sure know how to turn up the excitement. This stuff

is bad enough when you are home and can share some of the misery with family

and friends but 2000 miles from home--I don't know. I guess it doesn't

matter how far from home the hospital is, it's what is happening once you

are there. Your account reminded me of so many things that I had to deal

with. I guess we just do what we have todo. When I had the first surgery I

was up there all alone. No one, including me, knew I was going for surgery

when I did. Can't hear, can't walk, don't know if the docs and nurses

understand that or not. Well, it was a little scary to say the least. Next

time I go, I want to borrow Lois. At least she now has experience in

waiting and wondering.

Glad you are home and doing well. Maybe next year we could do Show and Tell

at Spring Fling. My poor old belly looks like a relief map of West

Virginia. But, you know? It's working and I'm still kicking and

complaining and under the circustances that is a very good thing.

Sure and hoping and wishing I can get to Ohio. Got the van. No ramps yet

and then if the second mortgage on the house goes through so I can buy

gas....well, you never know.

Ronnie

Re:/Re:Vaughn house sold-- bypass surgery

>

> Ronnie wrote

> ,

>

> Welcome home from the wild, wild west. Sure did miss you at the Fling.

>

>

> Ronnie,

> I missed the Fling too I would really liked to have been there. I

> missed your mean orange fudge but on the second thought maybe I ate too

> much of it last year. The wild, wild west was not good on me this year

> I spent February 19 to March 16 in the hospital.

>

> I have put this of long enough so I might as well tell you the rest of

> the story. I woke up at 3:30 AM on the morning of Feb. 19 with nausea,

> sweating, all clammy all the classic signs of a heart attack. There was

> hospital just down the street from us so Lois took me there. After

> testing it was determined that I did indeed have heart attack. It was

> a light one although the heart cath showed one almost blocked and two

> more nearly. So on Feb 22 I had a triple heart by pass surgery. Ronnie

> see what your mean orange fudge did to me. LOL

>

> Has any one with PLS had heart by pass surgery? Its a was real

> challenge. When Lois registered me she told them about the PLS. First

> thing they did was put a yellow band on my arm. So no matter which part

> of the hospital I went they always knew not let me fall. Nobody really

> knew what PLS was but I had enough of the " Physician's Guide to PLS " in

> my back pack on my chair to hand out. I must have handed out 6 or 7 of

> them to any one that was interested or wanted to learn more. One went

> with my file every where I went.

>

> The surgery all went well I was in ICU for almost 2 weeks. Why two

> weeks when the normal is your out in 3-5 days?

> I didn't know this till I was back at our apartment but the first week

> I was on the respirator all the time. Once I was off the respirator

> things started to improve. Lois kept a diary of every day and she had

> in there at least I was not going backwards but not making much

> progress either. The second week all my family, siblings, and friends

> came to see from Ohio. (Remember I'm in Mesa, AZ.) I told Lois that

> when she leaves she should go see these people and let them come in.

> The hospital wouldn't let them in because they were going to give me a

> bath. She told me that they were not out there and I told just to go

> and find out for herself. Wait a minute Dave is that what really

> happened or were you hallucinating? So the second week I was

> hallucinating and that was a concern for Lois.I could tell you more

> stories of I seen and it seemed all REAL. The Doctor then decided to

> put me in a private room on the fourth floor where I could see out and

> also see when it night and day. That really did help me and in a

> couple of days I was OK.

>

> From there they moved me to transition center which was a rehab center.

> I really didn't want to go there and thought I was ready to go my

> apartment but Lois knew I wasn't. In the end realized that I wasn't

> ready and the transition center was good for me. I had two PT that

> worked with me one for walking and one that worked with me to do the

> daily needs like dressing and ect.

>

> Banner Desert is one of the bigger hospitals in the valley. We were

> very pleased with the doctors they worked well together. The surgon

> give Lois his phone number and any family member could call with

> questions. In the last year he had performed 300 bypass surgeries. They

> were interested in learning about PLS. The nurses were very

> accommodating once they knew what my limitations were. I say they were

> scared of me when they would want to get me up they asked if I could

> walk? I would say yes with a walker but when my feet hit the floor they

> would start to shake (rattle and roll) and back into bed I went. Next

> came the hoist with sling and I would be taken out of bed that way.

> (that was kinda fun) One day Lois was there and seen what they were

> doing so she helped me get out and after that they didn't use the

> hoist.

>

> All in all it worked well even though we were 2,000 miles from home. We

> did have some friends there and the church we attended was very

> supportive. The pastor came to see several times. At the transition

> center I could go outside and enjoy the warm sunshine which I couldn't

> at home. At home Lois would had to drive 30 miles to the hospital and

> contend with the bad weather. Our daughter flew in from Kansas and

> spent a week with Lois.

>

> One thing I was sorry to miss was the gathering Bonnie had planed in

> Tempe.

>

> We did come back to Ohio on April 5 Our son flew in from California to

> help Lois drive home.

>

> I was to my local heart doctor on Tuesday and had a good report. I do

> feel good and am walking more with my walker than I did before the

> surgery. Before I found myself relying on chair more and more and less

> on the walker.

>

> L. PLS, OH

>

>

>

>