Update on nancy’s Mom – post surgery

After having a defibrillator installed a few days ago, doctors determined that Marge had more issues than an irregular heart beat. She reported having loss of feeling in one arm. After she was strong enough and had her blood thinned enough for it, she underwent an angiogram.. It was then determined that she had a blood clot in her arm and would require surgery to repair.

She underwent surgery but it was determined that the clot was higher up in her arm than thought. That close to her heart meant that it was best to open up her chest (open heart surgery). They also found that she had a clot in her neck that was affefting blood circulation to her head. They were able to remove both large clots.

She spent two days in the intensive care area of the heart surgical unit at Christ Hospital in Oaklawn. Nancy and Jan have been visting her and this morning, Nancy and I visited her. She was awake and fairly alert (seemed sleepy). She was connected to a lot of monitoring equipment.

A technician came in and connected a passive data acquisition device to her left chest area, over her defibrillator implant in order to interrogate it. The computer read the info and printed it out. It confirmed that the implant was still active and that there had been in events (electrical shocks of the heart).

Jan called tonight with some good news. Marge was moved to a regular room, so we can visit her more freely and it should mean that her recovery is progressing at a good pace.

Jim