The day before: Anticipation and a whole lot of faith.

In affairs of the heart nobody knows better than my brother Mark. His list of heart procedures is rather impressive to say the least. Born with an internal birth defect called “The Transposition of the Great Vessels” Mark’s cardiovascular system was pumping blood from his body, back to his body, and blood from his lungs back to the lungs, meaning that his body was getting no oxygen placed back into the blood supply. The only thing that kept him alive for almost 2 years was the hole in the septum of his heart which allowed enough oxygen to mix and keep his body alive. Over time that hole slowly closes resulting in a long term suffocation.

I was born during this period of my brother’s life. Of course I don’t remember anything from this period of my life.

My parents had almost given up all hope of finding a way to solve Mark’s problem when my Mom heard from a former colleague about something called “The Baffes Procedure.” Dr. Thomas Baffes had created this procedure in Chicago to correct the transposition of the great vessels. My parents wasted no time in getting Mark up to Chicago so Dr. Baffes could have a look. At the age of about 2 he underwent surgery to correct it and the results were astonishing. It completely solved the problem and Mark began to recover from being starved of oxygen during the first two years of life.

13 years later, when my brother was 15 he had a stroke sending him to the Vanderbilt Medical Center where he was treated by Dr. William F. Meachum. He recovered well but still has a slight problem with his left hand’s control. During his stay at Vanderbilt Hospital Dr. Meachum suggested we speak with Dr. Harvey Bender, who in 1975 was relatively new to Vanderbilt but was a highly skilled thoracic and cardiac surgeon who also specialized in child surgery. He was an impressive person, tall and extremely handsome, which caused my parents to think “How can this guy who is that handsome, charming and young possibly be a heart surgeon?”

The result of that consultation is that they would do an open heart surgery to tie off the teflon tubes which had long since been covered with scar tissue and were the size meant for a 2 year old, and create a baffle within the heart through the septum and rerouting the flow of blood so that it would again become completely oxygenated.

At the age of 16 he underwent open heart surgery which was quite the ordeal for my parents. I was 14 and just thought that Mark would be fine, which he would be, but one has to admit that such a surgery is a very major deal with lots of possible issues. But, he made it through the surgery well, and was on his way to a long period of recovery.

All was well, for the most part, with my brother’s health until 2006 when he started having issues again. Since 2006 he has had multiple inter-venous procedures placing stints and such to open up various passages to improve blood circulation. The last procedure was I think in 2018 or so. That procedure really helped him out.

So Mark has been on the table more than most people and has first hand knowledge of what it is like to be a patient after a certain type of procedure.

Dad is going to have such a procedure. The procedure itself is the easy part, well for the patient. It is recovery that is the challenge. So, when Dad comes out of his narcosis Mark will be the one at his side when he awakens.

Dad is not the best patient, and the anesthesia has a profound effect on his thinking. He is usually very confused, disoriented, and anxious after coming out of a anesthesia. So, Mark will hopefully be able to help control Dad when he comes out of it.

It is Coronavirus time. Only one person is allowed in the hospital at a time. So, I will deliver Dad at 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning to be registered, and go through pre-op procedures. His surgery is expected to begin at 7:00 a.m. I will wait during this time in the waiting room. We suspect the surgery will go until about 9:00 depending, and so Mark will come and take my place during the procedure. So that when he gets out, he can go and be at my father’s side. We will alternate shifts every 2-3 hours. I don’t think we can stay in post op very long at any one time. Which is good, I don’t think it is wise having people in that environment. You have to let the doctors and nurses do their jobs.

That evening Dad should be placed in the CCU, the Cardiac Care Unit, and then closely monitored to make sure he doesn’t hurt his wounds. How he recovers will depend on the length of his hospital stay, and he may be, or probably be, transferred to a Rehab Center, which means a 3 day minimum stay. I feel this would be good for him. He will want to come home fast. We will do as the Doctor orders.

But, provided all things go well, he should be home by Wednesday at the latest. April 22. Then it will be yours truly and some help from a care team thereafter. We hope that this procedure will greatly improve the quality of his life.

Without this surgery the cardiac valve would continue to close, the congestive heart failure would continue to worsen and his life expectancy would be short term and absolutely no fun for him.

Today it is all about getting Dad ready for tomorrow and getting him to bed early.

For Mark and I, we also have to prepare ourselves for the coming days.

Many people have been through difficult times with their aging parents and we look at the friends and families who have been through these sorts of things and are amazed at their ability to handle this very difficult time in life. My Mom and Dad never had to deal with the care of their parents at this stage of life. We’ve been through it with Mom and I have been through it somewhat with Grandmother Bandy. Now Dad’s care is top priority in our lives. Mark has also been through this with his in-laws Goy and Betty Wallace as well.

We know that we are not special in any way. We are just trying to do it right and we know that we will do things wrong. But our parents deserve to be well cared for and we are going to do our best to do that.