Fight the Good Fight

This morning Daddy had his heart catheter done to find out more information on what is going on with his heart. The test confirmed that he has had 2 heart attacks completely blocking 2 out of 3 of the major arteries in his heart. The Circumflex artery is the only functioning artery but it is a large artery and completely clear of any blockage. His ejection (blood being pumped out of the heart) is at about 25-35% right now (normal being 55-85% for his age). We were hoping that during the catheter they would be able to repair some of the blocked arteries by angioplasty (ballooning and stinting) but the Dr. T said they were damaged beyond repair and the angioplasty would have been pointless. Any type of open heart surgery at this point would be unsuccessful as well.

As far as the cause, Dr. T says the blocked arteries are from cholesterol. Between an unhealthy (I'd call it semi-unhealthy) diet and genetics. The blockage probably started a few years ago and has progressively gotten worse. Daddy has noticed a decrease in his energy (mostly while running) but blamed it on his blood pressure medicine and his age, so we had no reason to question the cause. That's why you have had decreased sightings of him running the streets of Nowata in the last couple of years.

The game plan from here is to up his dose of Carvedilol (beta blocker that makes the heart pump more effectively) to see if that will increase the ejection rate in his heart. In 3 months the doctors will reevaluate, and if the ejection rate hasn't increased then he will be eligible for a defibrillator. In a month he will have blood work done to check his cholesterol and possibly another echo to see how he's doing. I'm sure he's excited about his new diet that mom will be putting him on immediately. :)

With 3/4 of a brain and 1/3 of a heart functioning, he is still our tough, witty and stubborn Daddy and we have full confidence that he will continue to fight the good fight.

#3