Poor Alice!
If you remember last time, I was talking about how Winnie had been admitted to the hospital and had just had a heart attack. The doctors have since decided that Winnie needs to have an angioplasty.
An angioplasty is a procedure in which a tiny balloon is inserted through an artery in the arm or leg up to the heart. The balloon pushes open blocked coronary arteries. They aren’t sure yet in Winnie’s case, but a small metal rod called a stent might be put into the artery where the blockage was to hold the artery open.
Winnie is scheduled for her surgery tomorrow afternoon. Otto will be there (of course) and Alice (their daughter) is going down to Denham Springs a few days early so she can be there for her dad.
The procedure can take anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours to perform. This depends on the technical difficulty of the case and the number of balloons that have to be used. It is estimated that the risk of death during an angioplasty procedure is usually less than 1%, while the chance of requiring emergency bypass surgery is around 2% or less.
The doctors have told Otto that Winnie should be home in time for Christmas. Most patients only stay in the hospital for one or two days after an angioplasty. I’m just glad that she went to the hospital in the first place! If it had been left up to her she’d have “wait and seen” herself right into her grave!
Winnie will have to avoid strenuous activity for a week or two after the surgery… This might be hard for her with all the cleaning and organizing that needs to be done! Otto will have been the only person in the house for about a week by then. The pile of dishes will be monumental! I wonder if Alice is staying in a hotel?
We hope this was helpful. If you have any questions or if you know of a senior that could benefit from our vast array of home care services in Baton Rouge, please call us at 225.819.8338 or email us. Most long-term care insurance policies will reimburse us for our services and we have a team of over 200 bonded and insured CAREGivers covering the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area.
