Will of God
17 April 2005
It was Thursday before Good Friday. My husband called me at work and asked that I pick up our daughter after school as he thought he might have the flu. By the time I got home about 1½ hours later, he had blurred vision in one eye, a splitting headache, was dizzy and weak, was experiencing pain in his back, stomach and chest, was nauseated, was slurring his speech and his left side was not functioning properly. I called 911.
The ambulance arrived in about 10 minutes and took him to University Hospital, a part of the London (Canada) Health Sciences Centre complex, where the ER doctor noticed, among other things, that his blood pressure was wildly different in his left and right arms. They ordered a CT of his abdomen and when they saw the results, a CT of his chest. The cardio/thoracic resident was called. He took one look at the CT scans and called the surgeon who was on call for Easter weekend.
Dr. McKenzie arrived about 10 minutes later and showed me the scans - the aorta had dissected from the heart down to the iliac arteries. By this time my husband was "seizing" and Dr. McKenzie said, "He is having a stroke." The doctor also said, "He needs surgery immediately" and that this type of surgery was quite tricky - somewhat like"sewing blotting paper". My husband had had a lot of pain in his jaw before the seizure.
By the time I finished looking at the CT scan, they had taken him to surgery. He was in the operating room from 10:30 pm until noon the next day, where they fixed the aneurysm and did a repair to the aortic arch and repositioned the aortic valve. During this time they also opened his abdomen because it appearedone of the iliac arteries was blocked; thankfully, it wasn't. Dr. McKenzie told us to expect anything from full recovery to brain dead. Saturday they operated again to remove blood clots pressing on hisheart.
Breathing machines, amnesiac and hallucinogenicpain killers, 5 chest drainage tubes, monitors of all sorts, numerous IVs, arterial lines, pneumonia, decreased kidney function etc. - the nurses and doctors in the CICU were absolutely amazing and looked after him there for 9 days. He spent the next 10 days on the heart surgery floor and came home today, April 12.
He is taking short walks, eating a little more and is on blood pressure medicine and coated aspirin. He feels like he has been beaten all over with a very large stick. He is exhausted. This will take months.
In spite of the dire predictions, it seems the outlook is quite good due to David being what the CICU nurses termed a "fighter", the incredible skill of the brilliant and wonderful Dr. McKenzie and his multi-talented team, the magician, Dr. Novick, who orchestrated the balancing act in the CICU, the absolutely crack nursing staff and what Dr. McKenzie termed the "Will of God".
Discussion, comments, or questions: Donnajean Griffin
© Copyright 2005 Donnajean
Griffin
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