Manic Kitty

Dad's op didn't go as planned and at this moment he is back in surgery a week after the original one.

I came back home to Stalybridge a few hours ago as Bryher is due her jabs tomorrow. I went to the hospital just before I left and the surgeon said he was stable and getting slightly better though he's still very poorly. He's been sedated for the past week since the operation but they were talking about lifting it and letting him come round.

Then Mum phoned an hour ago and said they had taken him back down to theatre. Mum isn't sure what's happened. They were going to remove some drains from his chest and now they've found a bleed around his heart.

The original operation was to repair one of his heart valves as he has a heart murmur, we knew there was a 2% risk of complications but as Dad was fit and healthy we thought everything would be fine, and this was the best time to do it. It wasn't until they opened him up that they found out what state his valve was really in. They tried repairing the valve twice, but it burst both times so they had to replace it. By this time he had been on heart bypass for about 10 hours and a lot of his organs had packed up. We were expecting him out of theatre at about 5pm, at 8:30pm Mum, my brother and I went down to the hospital and they had sorted out a room for us to use for the duration of his stay. That's when I realised it was serious. I had to go back to my brothers house at 10:30pm to feed Bryher, around midnight my brother phoned to tell us he was out of theatre and what had happened.

Over the week we've had ups and downs, he's been on and off dialysis and he's had a chest infection. They found a bleed in his heart so yesterday they did tests to try to find where it was bleeding into. Last night Mum phoned to say not to visit as they might be taking him back into theatre to repair the bleed so I might not get to see him anyway, she also said that his heart monitor was showing a systolic. Mum didn't know what that meant, but my brother and I did so we both made a mad dash for the hospital (Porl and I managed to pack up Bryher and everything she needed for an overnight stay in 15 minutes and were at the hospital in 30 minutes.) As we were rushing in the main entrance my sister-in-law phoned and said not to panic Dad wasn't going anywhere. They had decided the operation wasn't necessary right now, and he hadn't gone a systolic, it was just that his heart rate was dropping lower than the machine liked and so a pacing box was kicking in and the machine was flashing up a systolic.


It's taken hours to write this post, and Dad is now out of theatre, back on the ward, stable again and better than he was 4 hours ago... I can breathe again.


We've been told Dad will be in intensive care for weeks/months. It's going to be a very long slow recovery, and we will have ups and downs like this. He has all the top people looking after him, not just in that hospital, but consultants in other parts of the country too, we just have to hope for the best.
I'm trying my hardest not to think about the alternative outcome.

Mum has been staying at the hospital most of the time, we have been at her house and fielding phone calls. We have only told a few people he's in hospital, but if all the people who are phoning asking after him and wishing him well are anything to go by then he has to get better. Most people didn't know he had a heart problem never mind needed an operation so it's been a total shock.



I'm a big believer in Kama. Not that Dad deserves any of this, he's such a kind generous, soft hearted man... so all the people phoning keep reminding us of... but we need all the help we can get right now, so I've decided to join in with some others and Pay It Forwards.

The first 3 people who comment on here will get a handmade gift from me at some point in the next 365 days. A year to make 3 things seems just about achievable right now.
All I ask in return is you do something nice for someone else. Many people doing Pay It Forward ask that you post this same offer on your own blog, but I know some non-bloggy, non-crafty people read this, so I'll allow you to Pay It Forward in your own way.

My other request is that you keep your fingers, toes, eyes, and every other body part possible crossed for my Dad.

Not surprisingly the blogging every day failed as a result of this past week.