The wonders of surgery…

Here is my son Mark in 2008 hugging one of the Pantheon columns in Rome, Italy. We were on the trip of a lifetime and, other than keeping sure that he cared for his diabetes, we had little to worry about.  We now fast forward to last week and, once again, diabetes had become the concern. Mark was admitted to the ER with a very high blood sugar and dehydration. I was very worried but knew that a few days on fluids and he would probably come out of it.

Imagine our surprise when they started questioning him about his heart. Evidently the EKG was out of whack and the next thing you know he was sent to the Cardiac Cath Lab where they found blockages in four of his coronary arteries.
It is interesting to note that this came as a complete surprise to all of us, not the least one being Mark himself. No wonder they call this the “silent killer” or the “widow maker”. If the diabetes had not acted up I dread to think what might have happened. 

They wanted to take him to surgery immediately but his elevated sugar levels made this impossible so they spent two days nursing him back to “normality” and then, last Friday, they were able to perform open heart surgery and a quadruple bypass.

Luckily we have a state-of-the-art heart center connected to our hospital here in Pinehurst and his care has been outstanding. He has literally been given a new lease on life and, knowing Mark, he will grab it with gusto. As for me … I’m still in shock!