Your prayers and support mean the world to me. The prayers are working. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Today is day five since my brother-in-law Bill's open heart surgery. He's still alive. As the cardiologist said, each hour that goes by without any complications or infections, the better.
Bill is completely sedated and on a paralyzing drug. He started moving yesterday as if he was in pain. They quickly put him on a continuous IV drip with the pain medication.
Bill is connected to eleven machines, including a dialysis machine which they tell us is only temporary as his kidneys repair themselves from the damage of being without oxygen during the heart attack. They're 99% percent sure they can take him off the dialysis after he recovers. Four of the machines are monitoring his 11 IV drips filled with 11 different medicines.
The cardiologist, Dr. Steve Jones (we call him Dr. Steve), is one of the most amazing men I've met in my life. He's been doing open heart surgery for 26 years. He's incredibly intelligent and very kind. He's promised us that if he thinks Bill doesn't have a chance to recover and lead a worthwhile life, he'll let us know. He emphasized again yesterday that Bill is a very, very sick man. Every day is another day of cautious optimism. I really believe Bill is getting the best care in the world. Yes, here in Anchorage, Alaska.
A little history on my Bill, only because this might help someone else out there reading this. He and my sister, Joyce, smoked for forty years. Bill smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, Joyce one or two packs. Lucky Strikes. Both my sister and Bill quit smoking twelve years ago.
They thought they were home-free, escaping the damage of smoking. When they quit smoking they started eating whole-grain, natural foods. They completely changed their diets. They're both normal weight. They both exercise at the gym five days a week, every week. Even though they're 70 and 73 years old, they were the picture of health.
Yet Bill had a massive heart attack destroying a good portion of his heart. Quadruple bypass and heart valve replacement. How did this happen?
According to Dr. Steve, once you smoke, the damage done to your heart never repairs itself. The tar from the cigarettes builds up in the arteries and stays there your entire life. It acts like a glue for the cholesterol that sticks to it as it as the blood passes through the arteries. Once the arteries are clogged, the blood stops flowing, the lungs can't work and he had a heart attack. He had his heart attack at the gym, while working out.
Bill had a physical three months ago. The doctor in Fairbanks mistook the pressure in his chest and the choking feeling he had as acid reflux and gave him Nexium. Dr. Steve said those were signs of coronary disease. If this had been caught prior to the heart attack, this wouldn't have been such a big deal. The heart attack made it all 100% worse.
I think he might pull through, but any minute it could all to hell. Please keep praying.
If you smoke or have smoked, do a little research about the signs of a heart attack. Get your heart checked out. Even if you stopped smoking many years ago or only smoked ten or twenty years, you still could have very significant damage to your heart. Dr. Steve said he had a man that smoked twenty years, quit for twenty years, then had the same heart damage as Bill. I knew smoking was bad, but I had no idea how bad. Dr. Steve blames Bill's heart attack on the smoking.
My sister is holding up okay. This is her husband of 51 years. He's also her best friend. One minute she's hopeful, the next minute she's weeping and telling me she doesn't know how she can live without him. It's heart wrenching.
My two nieces, husbands, grandchildren, my brother and his wife were here all weekend from Fairbanks. They've been a pleasant distraction, although watching my nieces face the very real possibility of losing their dad has torn me to pieces.
My seven-year old great-nephew, my favorite, has been hanging on me for the past three days. He's a crazy, fun, and very loving little kid. He's made me smile and laugh. Thankfully he doesn't understand the seriousness of it all.
My sister and I are living on the 7th floor of the hospital, Alaska Regional, sharing a room. It's old hospital rooms that have been converted into a no-frills hotel of sorts. We're the only people on this floor.
We talk a lot during the night, about everything, but mainly about how could this happen, why, and how she'll survive this horrific event. My sister is a realist and knows there's a very good chance she'll be a widow. She may also become the caregiver of her husband, the love of her life.
My sister is an atheist. Although I've heard her ask several people to pray. This morning she said to me, "how could God let this happen?" I have no answers for her and could only hold her and cry with her. I don't understand it either. Bill is he kindest, most gentle man you'd ever want to meet. He's literally one of those people that would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. I hate this kind of stuff, where I have no answers.
My brother-in-law is a Christian. They both were Christians until my nephew committed suicide 18 years ago. That's when my sister became an atheist. This event may change her mind, or it may confirm her non-belief. I'm not pushing her, but letting her decide what she believes. I just wish I had a stronger foundation myself so I could help her more.
This situation is putting my life in perspective for me. I'm thinking about what's really important in this life. I've told my manager at work I'll be out of the office for at least two, probably three weeks. Bill will probably be in the critical care unit for a couple months, maybe longer. My niece is going to quit her part-time job and take over for me when I'm forced to go back to work. I will not and can not leave my sister alone during this time.
Thank you again everyone for your prayers. I believe in the power of prayer. I know you don't really know me or Bill, but still, your prayers are helping. One thing I've found here all the doctors, the pulmonologist (lung doctor), the nephrologist (kidney doctor) and the cardiologist all believe in the power of prayer. So do I. So does Bill. Joyce...maybe.
