We have a date!

[Cindy]

We are happy to report that we finally have a date for my dad's AVR surgery. We will travel to the Cleveland clinic on Aug.28th for 2 days of tests. Then we will stick around and "sight-see" for a few days until Labor Day is over. They are giving us a 2 day window of Sept. 4th or 5th..... for the surgery.
It is good to have a date on the calendar so we can proceed with plans. As I will be leaving my 2 children (and husband) I have lots of arrangements make - plus flight reservations, etc.
Just got home from my parents and my Dad looks good. I think he is feeling better - he had been sore from his fall. These 2 weeks will go by fast.... I am reading and getting prepared here every day.
Thanks for all the support and information I have received from you guys!!!
Cindy

 

[Peter Easton]

Twins

Twins

Good luck to you and your Dad, Cindy!

Sounds like he and I will be hitting the OR at about the same time. My surgery (in Gainesville, FL) is scheduled for the 4th.

May our cohort sail through with flying colors! Give your Dad my best.

Peter

 

[Cindy]

Mutual Surgery date

Mutual Surgery date

Hi Peter,
I am glad that we will be sharing a surgery date.... This way my mom and I will have TWO patients on our prayer list that day!! It is so appropriate that is it you because so many of your threads have helped me and my dad prepare for this day....
I have pages and pages of information I have printed from this site and links folks here have told me about. I finally had to buy a small 3 ring binder to keep it all straight!!
I told a friend that this is how I handle stress - to jump into preparation mode... read, read, read and pursue all avenues. That is how we ended up traveling out of state for surgery even though we have 2 good heart hospitals in Atlanta.
Well... I will continue to think of you and your family as you prepare for the BIG DAY!!! Before you know it - we will be over in the "post" folder comparing recovery!!! Stay well - Cindy

 

[Peter Easton]

Heading toward veteran status!

Heading toward veteran status!

More power to you, Cindy! We'll have quite a club of September '02 veterans -- something to recount to our grandkids and hopefully to your Dad's great-grands.

I sure know what you mean about 3-ring binders. I've got a mammoth one now, including off-prints of some of the more interesting articles that are available on-line, at least in abstracted version (which is generally all I want to read or could understand anyways). If it weren't that we are just inherently interested in this stuff for obvious reasons, you'd think we ought to be earning Continuing Education Units just for getting ready for AVR! Now there's a course to develop = Preparing for AVR 101.

I, too, find therapy in these kinds of preparations. And I actually enjoy having the increased time before surgery that I do, in order to spend more time with family, straighten up affairs, spruce up gratitude for life, etc. It all took the form this last weekend of doing some long-overdue landscaping around the house, one of my favorite tasks. (We live on a property with much "potential," as they say. The landscaping is an endless task, and thank goodness.) Also I happily have a few of my Mother's genes in me. My Dad once remarked about her that she could get thrown off course by the smallest of details, yet sailed through the big events like a trooper. Once decisions are made and developments are in the hands of others and the Other, I feel a great sense of relief and enjoy watching the scenery go by.

Many blessings.

Peter

 

[McCln]

I am happy for you as I have a date set up my valve replacement. It will be august 21. I know you are relaxed now that there is a date. That is the hard part. You are a good child to be concerned. Parents need all the love and care we can give them. You hang in there and he will come out just fine.

 

[Cindy]

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thank you McLin ~~ I see from the calendar you are our next surgery on this forum (if everyone has their dates posted)..... Five days and counting. Please know we will be thinking of you and expecting a great outcome. Look forward to hearing of your progress before I leave for Cleveland the end of the month....Cindy