My Heart Is Heavy

Last week we were told a dear friend had been hospitalized due to a heart attack.
This otherwise healthy man, has had open heart surgery and has an implanted pacemaker/defibrillator. He does not smoke - works a FT job - does a lot of outdoor activity. HIs vice is only red wine.

Thursday night he had gone out to the garage, stopped on his deck and spoke with his oldest son, went into the house and faceplanted on his tile floor in the dining area.

The oldest son heard the thud, came into the house and found his father face down in a pool of blood and non responsive. In faceplanting, he ended up with 5 stitches inside his mouth, a broken tooth, a loose tooth, swelling and bruising along one side of his face, and a sprained finger. He also flatlined. For 17 seconds until the defibrillator did it's job.

In the hospital for several days and many tests. Angiogram showed no blockage, and no valve problems. He was discharged home Sunday with the news though that his 30% heart function was now 12%. They are setting up appointments at Stanford to talk about a heart pump, and possible heart transplant.

Now, about 2 weeks before that he went on a short fishing trip with a friend to one of his many happy places up in the foothills. Hasn't been there in awhile. And now he is admitting several things. One, that the altitude bothered him more than it had every bothered him before - to the point he had trouble sleeping. And two, that he had been having dizzy spells which he never reported to the cardiologist because he though they were side effects of his medication.

This is a good man. A man who is loved by many. A man who has 2 grown sons very dependent upon him. One that is probably never going to be able to hold a job because of issues. And another one who is, and has been, waiting for a settlement for a work related injury for several years now - long enough that it helped cause him to break up with a long time relationship. He also has a expenditures that can barely be handled by his paycheck + social security.

What is the next step? Who knows. And who knows where a 67 year old man, a man without a humongous bank account or celebrity status, would fall onto a heart transplant list. We don't know what to do except continue to be there for him and his sons. If anyone has resources - information - ideas, I hope you let me know.

Now, in our news. Our German Shepherd is going to have to have surgery after we come back from our Hawaii vacation. She will end up with an amputated pinkie toe, at the very least, on her front left paw. Luckily - for anyone but especially dogs - that is not a big deal when it comes to the rest of their lives. And hopefully, at the same time, she will have her lick granuloma removed and replaced with an autologous skin graft. Not cheap at all - but actually about 1/2 of what we were guessing. But the recovery is going to be a royal pain in the neck - mainly because our backyard is just a dirt pit - and the most important things will be to keep both legs (the granuloma is on the right foreleg) clean. Ai yi yi.

The granuloma is ugly. And I guess it can become a problem. But the cyst on the paw is what is important. But doing both at the same time allows for only one time under anesthesia. We do not have good history with dogs going under anesthesia so that day (we will schedule it after we get back - and probably wait until after the floor is put in because while that is happening the dogs will have to be outside all day for a couple of days) will be extremely stressful for us.

She is on antibiotics for now - 10 days worth - her NSAIDS - and they even gave us some calming pills - one to definitely give her the day of surgery - but to use before if she needs it. And giving her pills is a fight. Bought some pill pockets. Ralph, our other dog, loves the (empty) pill pockets. Bella will NOT take them so now we are shoving 2 more pills down her throat. And they don't even smell bad!! She is a (loveable) pain!

We are going to have to take a ride today. The other afternoon we commented on the fact that there were many more sirens than usual. Then a friend called and said his sister told him she saw on her app (her 2 sons are firemen so of course she has an app!) and said that there was a fire at Red's Donuts in Seaside. So I figure EVERY police officer and fireman close by was responding to a donut shop on fire!! So today we are going to have to go drive by and check it out because I cannot find anything on line about it!

Started our packing for the trip so that has the dogs stressed out! Unfortunately this trip is not going to be as relaxing as we hoped for because we will spend the time worrying about our friend and a dog - even more than usual!