jianantonic | (no subject)

I just got the update on my Uncle Jim from my mom. She and Dad saw him this afternoon after his surgery. The doctors knew there were some blockages, so they knew they'd be performing bypass surgery, but that was all they knew going into the operation. When they opened his chest, they found that half of his heart wasn't pumping. They were going to have to stop the surgery if they couldn't get it going again, but they gave him some medicine that started it back up again, so they proceeded. They ended up having to do a quintuple bypass. That's five. It used to be that double bypass was unheard of. I'd never heard of more than four, and this blew me away because of all my relatives, Jim is THE healthiest in his age group. He and my Aunt Sandra hike almost every day. They're in excellent shape. I guess it's just bad genes - which sucks even more, because I have the same ones. Anyway, five bypasses was way more than they expected, and Jim had a very rough day, although he doesn't know it yet because he's still doped up. However, he is recovering well given the circumstances. It will just be a long time before he's back to his daily hikes. It's really tragic, because Jim takes such great care of himself, and he won't be able to do the things he loves the most for a long time. On the other hand, it's really good that this was discovered, because it could've easily been missed. He had a massive heart attack and barely felt it! My Aunt Coo, who had a minor attack last year, said it felt like elephants sitting on her chest. Jim, on the other hand, was "a little uncomfortable." I'm just so thankful that he had the presence of mind to go to the hospital and get checked.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, and please keep them coming.

Peace.