Update On My Sister

In a few of my previous blogs I have written about my sister and her heart condition, here is the latest news.

Ok so the MRI I had at BAMC the end of April showed all the things we already knew and then one more interesting tidbit of information. They figured from the MRI images that 20-30% of the blood that my heart is pumping is coming back into my left ventricle instead of being pumped through my arteries. We already knew that there was backflow but did not know how much until we got the results from this MRI. Dr Scally (my cardiologist) and Dr York (the cardiologist at BAMC) both agreed that this is a moderate amount of backflow. They also said that since this causes a significant amount of stress on the heart, that a lot of doctors go ahead and recommend the surgery be done so the extra stress does not end up doing permanent damage to the heart.

Also, I had to stop going to cardiac rehab because the exercise was causing problems with my blood pressure and was making me feel terrible. Dr Scally said that the combination of what they found on the MRI and the problems at rehab are enough concern to go ahead and refer me to a surgeon. He has referred me to Dr Ganzel, a surgeon at Jewish hospital. Dr Ganzel is reviewing all of my information. His office will be contacting me soon to set up a consult appointment and get the ball rolling on the surgical stuff.

We now have to work on this from the military standpoint as well. We have several different ways that we may be able to work this out where Jeremy can be there for me when I have my surgery and recovery. My doctor recommends that the military reassigns Jeremy to Ft Knox temporarily; however, while his recommendation is very helpful, the final decision is not up to him. Jeremy's chain of command has to approve this and then it must be approved by several other people as well. Please keep this in your prayers.