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8:14pm February 22, 2012

Nervous.

Im getting really antsy. My father had a stroke a month or so ago. One that may have been noticed before it got bad, if I’d remembered to tell him I thought his doctor’s explanation of the headaches was suspiciously “too easy” for new severe headaches in a 70-year-old man. So I already feel guilty.

Anyway he’s either in surgery right now or just coming out. They found an artery in his neck that was seriously blocked up. So they’re cutting all the crud out of it and putting it back together. During which time he’ll only have one artery supplying blood to his head. Then he will be in the ICU for awhile and won’t be allowed to move his head at all for some time they didn’t exactly tell me.

As can be expected I’m really jittery. He’s lived longer than men in his family ever do (normally 45-65, and yeah they were poor without good healthcare or dentistry, but still, there’s a reputation for sudden heart attacks) and… I just hope everything goes okay. There’s a 3% complication rate for the surgery nationwide, but his surgeon has only an 0.6% complication rate. So that’s what I’m focusing on. And I keep checking for emails from my brother.