Barb L; update on my dad

Barb L! (And everyone else reading this!) ;o)

I accidentally erased your comment instead of publishing it... I'm so sorry about that - I keep hitting the wrong buttons on this thing. I thought I had it right, but it didn't show up... *groan* I don't have your email, or I'd have written you there, but I wanted to fill you in regarding Dad. I was kind of vague in my post, and you said you kept your parents updated...

He's not doing so well. He has hepatitis C (from previous blood transfusions as he has hemophilia). The hepatitis has attacked his spleen, (somehow, no clue how), and the spleen has been "eating" Dad's platelets, literally swelling his spleen to be larger than a football. Not so great for a hemophiliac to be losing platelets... He now gets nose bleeds by putting on his shoes...

Meanwhile, Dad's heart is failing, and will probably need surgery to replace his aortic valve, which was replaced 10 years ago with a pig valve. That valve is now failing. He is having an MRI tomorrow, and his follow up appointment is the day after that. He has been getting pneumonia easily (because of the heart failure), and has been easily winded, etc. because of it.

Before they can even think about fixing the heart, they need to take care of his platelets. The doctors want to try to shrink his spleen by injecting some jelly-like substance into the blood vessels leading to the spleen, thereby suffocating and killing part or most of the spleen. Sounds a lot easier than just cutting him open and surgically removing the spleen (bad choice with the heart/blood situation), but this procedure is incredibly painful. His doctor said it would be as painful as a heart attack, and will last about ten days. (He'd be in the hospital that long, while the spleen is being killed and reabsorbed into his body). The bummer about this procedure (aside from the pain), is that it has never been done on an almost 80 yr old, (it has only ever been done on children), and has never been done by this doctor, or at this hospital, and certainly never on a hemophiliac. But he was the first hemophiliac to get a replaced heart valve 10 years ago, so he should be used to being a guinea pig by now, right? *sigh*

Doesn't look so good. He is so weak, I can't fathom him enduring ten days of that kind of pain. (Granted, they have promised a good morphine drip...) We'll know more after his appointment this week, but probably this will all be happening in the very near future. When he recovers from the spleen ordeal, then they'll do the heart surgery. Doesn't look like it's going to be a very good year for him. Tough roads ahead... He's in good spirits as always, though, and that will take him a long way. Regardless, please keep him in your prayers...