The Dawson Family: Heart Surgery

Last December we found out that my mom needed "emergency" heart surgery... 4 months later and we finally have a date. Apparently, their definition of emergency is different than ours. We found out that before you have any kind of heart surgery you have to go to the dentist first. If you need any dental work done, they schedule it before the heart procedures. They want to be sure you don't have any issues that could lead to infection...which would go right to your heart....so with waiting on two dentists, being sick with the flu for 2.5 weeks and other scheduling issues it took a whole 4 months to get her surgery scheduled. Crazy.

Today we had her pre-op apt. It was 4 hours of paper work. I have decided that "practicing medicine" really just means "one-who-fills-out-paperwork". I am glad that they are redundant, and that they try to eliminate any mistakes but I had forgotten how much paper work was involved in a hospital stay. We met everyone who will be a part of her team and they tried to prepare us for what surgery will entail. Her diagnosis is: Severe aortic stenosis, Tricuspid valve insufficiency and atrial fibrilation. They are going to fix 2 heart murmurs, replace the left ventricle valve and one other thing. They are also going to do a biopsy on a lymph node on mom's right side. She had breast cancer in 1981 and had recently found another lump and more recently a swollen lymph node. They thought it was best to do the biopsy while she was there. So, we have lots of excitement planned for Thursday.

We will all be at the hospital at 5am and they anticipate a 6-8 hour procedure. Scott will be skipping his IV treatment to be at the hospital with me and Billy will be closing the coffeehouse for the day. The surgery starts at 6:30 and we would appreciate all of your prayers. I should mention that we will be at the same hospital where my dad spent the first 3-4 months of his 6 month fight with GB. That hospital was our home for so long so each time I walk in those doors I am flooded with memories. I must say, I don't really like hospitals. I had forgotten how emotional they can be. There is no way that I could be a nurse...for multiple reasons...but especially because I would become too invested in my patients. It would be emotionally exhausting to "go thru" new people every day. I guess after awhile you would just turn off those feelings and shut everyone out...so you wouldn't get hurt or get too attached. I can only imagine how hard that would be. I know that the nurses and doctors who took care of my dad were kind, compassionate and loving and our family felt safe with them. I am praying that we will experience that again with my mom's surgery.

Please be praying for Dr. Brown, Robert the anesthesiologist and Sandy our nurse. Also, please pray for my mom, for a complete recovery, safe surgery and for peace. If after all of that you still have a few minutes, please pray for me and Billy. We are NOT ready to lose our mother and we need to be at Peace in remembering that God is in control....good or bad.