My Dear QB Sisters, thank you so much for your concern and prayers for Mike and our family. I am so sorry I haven't posted an update sooner. Mike has had an another set back. The good news: He is stable and strong, the prognosis is still very good but they were not able to do anything to repair either valve at this time. They are having to come up with a plan B.
The bad news: They opened him up and he had tons of scar tissue and some thickening/calcification in areas of his heart that concerned the surgeon enough to stop the procedure before they did any damage to his heart that they could not undo.
There will be a big conference at the hospital on Monday to decide the next step in Mike's treatment. They believe they will be able to go through an artery in his neck with a catheter to replace at the aortic valve and that will buy him enough time for them to decide how to do a long term repair to his entire heart. It is a specialized technique and he may have to go to a facility where they do them routinely, his surgeon has only done about a hundred.
Needless to say, I was devastated on Friday night when I got the news. Mike is still sedated. He doesn't know anything yet. He will be so sad when he realizes that he went through all of the invasiveness and pain and his heart is still not better. That he will NOT be going home yet. Fortunately, replacing the valve via the neck is less in invasive.
So, instead of us being on the journey towards getting Mike home to recuperate this week we are still in this scary sort of limbo. Yesterday I spent running around and getting things together for my DH's lengthier stay.
Please pray for Mike. Pray for us to make good decisions. Pray for all involved in his care.
Forgive me if I am not real coherent. I am very tired. Pray for my five here at home. His two oldest siblings are old enough to understand how serious this is. The three of them are very close.
Thanks to all who have written and are thinking of Mike and praying for him. I appreciate you all.
Deb