Dad’s vitals have improved immensely. Since a weigh in at 242 pounds at the beginning of March I believe, till his test last week at 232 pounds, this morning his weight was 210 pounds. This is the result of being in the hospital and having the proper care to get water off of his body. As you can see, the numbers are staggering. We have been strict on his salt/sodium diet and now his blood pressure is actually a little low. So, we have to actually salt him up a bit.
He has been resting well and hopefully we can get him to bed tonight early.
If you have spoken with Dad this week he may have told you it was an open heart surgery. It isn’t. The valve is delivered to the site via catheter through his arteries.
This procedure was created to aide in treating older people of heart failure. It is called the TAVR or Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement procedure and is minimally invasive.
- 5:00 a.m. Arrival at the Medical Center for Registration and Preparation
- 7:00 a.m. The procedure begins.
- 9:00 a.m. The procedure should be done. (Usually 1-2 hours, unless pacemaker has to be placed, then it will be longer.)
- Post Operation Recovery: Not sure how long that will last.
- How many days he will be staying at the hospital and/or later at a Rehab facility?
- It should be all said, and done with by Wednesday of next week.
I will post updates after the procedure is done.
I am taking Dad to the hospital and Mark is going to come circa 9:00 and be there when Dad wakes up. I want to do this to keep Mark rested, and then we will trade off.
It says in the instructions that we can only be there 1 at a time, for 15 minutes, 4 times a day after he is in the Recovery area. In the following days those rules will loosen up.
Again, they are inserting an Aortic Valve inside the original aortic valve to take over it’s function. Then at the appropriate time he will be released. Possibly to rehab.
Thanks for your show of support. It is greatly appreciated.