he's home

So RO is back home, sitting on the couch, reading the New Yorker, exhorting my mom to read about the perfidy of Rudy Giuliani. (She won't: he so disgusts her that why should she waste her time reading about such an awful man?)

On the good side (and it all good), he feels good and it all seems to be dwindling into a relatively minor health event. On the--confusing--side, we're really not quite sure what actually happened. It mostly seems to be a GI event with the heart problem as a sideshow. (Apparently to get a good heart attack diagnosis you need two of the following three: chest pain, elevated blood enzymes, and an irregular EKG. He didn't have chest pain, the enzymes were elevated but only a teeny amount, and we don't know about the EKG. So we don't know exactly what went on w/ the heart.) 

The endoscopy showed that there was NO ulcer, just a mildly irritated stomach and some esophageal irritation.  So we're committed to figuring it out so he can proceed confidently w/ the right medication (if any).  But for the time being it we're just glad he's home and feeling well and able to eat. 

That ends the saga--anybody who wants to monitor progress, feel free to contact me by phone or email--but I'll end the blog tonight since all seems well.

N

almost done with the hospital

Today, Thursday, was a good day. Mostly Dad hung out at North Collier Hospital and got transferred out of the ICU and into a normal room.  Tomorrow he'll have an endoscopy and be released either tomorrow afternoon (Friday) or the next day (Saturday) mostly depending on how strong he feels (I think). And assuming they don't find much of anything in his GI tract.

The major work today was trying to make sense of all the input from the six different doctors who have had a hand in the case. The intake person, the first cardiologist, the second cardiologist the cardiologist who did the cardiac catheter, the GI person, the critical care person, and a couple more. None of them entirely communicating with the others and each with a narrow focus. It was fantastically helpful having Joel there, not because anything was so difficult to understand but because the communication got ratcheted to a higher level.

Anyhow, I'll let everyone know about the endoscopy results tomorrow night, and hopefully this blog will end when the hospital stay is over.  Joel said that Howie (his friend from  Union, the cardiologist) suggested that it was possible that no heart attack had occurred at all--that it was possible for enzyme levels to be slightly elevated without any heart event. We're going to check the EKG and he's going to research that further, and I'll report on that as well. But maybe this whole episode is totally GI. In any event, the catheter showed that his heart is in great shape (as I mentioned before) so it's all pretty good news.

good news

Hi all.

Today Bob/Dad had a cardiac catheterization (basically a tube w/ a mini-camera, threaded through the groin to the chest) to look at the heart inside and up close. His heart looks great for an 82 year-old. 

The theory of what happened is that he had some kind of GI event that caused the bout of vomiting on New Year's Eve. All of the GI activity stimulated the nerves in his chest cavity and that was the cause of the heart irregularity. He's staying overnight and will probably have an endoscopy tomorrow (tube w/ camera to look at esophagus & stomach) to see if there's any bleeding or problem w/ the upper GI tract, but the blood that was detected in the vomit may just have been a trace.

Bottom line is that he DID have a heart attack but a very tiny one. He was exhausted but in good spirits. I'll write more tomorrow after we get the test results. Also, Joel will have a chance to talk to the doctors and get more info that way.

Love,

N

Bob's in hospital

Here's an update in case you've just found out about Bob's recent "health event."

On New Year's Eve Bob was taken by ambulance to the hospital in Collier County in North Naples. Initially they thought there was some kind of internal GI bleeding (he had vomited). Also, he presented with very low blood pressure and a heart arhythmia. The first thing they did was to to bring his blood pressure up and stabilize it. That done, they began to look for the cause of the bleeding. At around 4 a.m. they moved him into the intensive care unit for observation. That was last night.

Today, after many more tests, the diagnosis has changed to a heart attack--or at least that's what the cardiologist says. They're going to repeat the blood-enzyme tests a couple of times to confirm the diagnosis, but the doctor seems to think there isn't any internal bleeding because his hemoglobin count is normal.

I'm flying down tomorrow morning (Wednesday) and Joel Goldstein is flying down in the later afternoon, not because the medical crisis is so extreme but mostly to so I can help my mom and Joel can talk to the doctors peer-to-peer. Needless to say, my Dad doesn't want anyone to fuss. He's resting comfortably. When I spoke to my mother he was well enough to call out from his bed exhorting me to keep my cell phone on tomorrow.

I'll try to update this every evening while this situation is ongoing. The idea is to minimize time- and-energy draining phone calls but still get information out to everyone.

-Nancy