Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Questions; No Answers

I am seriously bleary eyed from stress and sleep deprivation and I’m not the one in the hospital. After 21 grueling days in the CICU and then the cardiac unit it looks like my sister is facing some tough decisions.

Number One:

Sib 2 had a heart MRI and a heart cath on July 16th. There was evidence of scarring on the front wall of the heart which indicates a heart attack (different than sudden cardiac death, which we know occurred on July 8th) at some point. No one can tell us when or whether it is related to the thyroid or something else entirely. .

Yesterday they did 2 heart CTs to get a definitive answer as to location and extent of the scarring. It is the opinion of the cardiac team to put in an ICD (pacemaker). My sister is 46. Holy shit.

Number Two:

Her Endocrinologist has not been in favor of removing her thyroid surgically. It will take 8 to 12 weeks to determine if her course of radioactive iodine (June 4th) has had an effect. The surgery is risky because her sever hypothyroidism has made her thyroid gland very vascular. In the surgery the manipulation of the glad to remove it could flood her system with thyroid hormones and send her into cardiac arrest. Nevertheless, they now feel they may not have another option. Holy shit.

My overriding concern remains that the trauma she has been though emotionally and physically make her a poor surgical candidate. Which surgery do they do first? Does one affect the other? Questions; no answers.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holy shit. Still praying.

Violet said...

Wow...on my knees with the Green Girl.

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

That is an overwhelming situation. I hope the doctors are able to make the right calls at the right times.