Ali & David Cross In Need Of Our Prayers

I pulled this off Ali's blog today . . . thought it'd be nice if we could all include her in our prayers.

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Saturday morning Update ...

I'm partially frustrated because the plan keeps changing, but this morning's plan makes sense and is a lot less invasive, which is good. NOW the doctors are thinking he has pneumonia and so they are going to treat him for that. The blood around his heart is, they think, simply that collection that occurs during a heart surgery and though his was four years ago, they say this is normal. That fluid never does get reabsorbed by the body and unless it becomes infected is not typically problematic.

The coughing, weight loss, general feeling of 'unwellness' and such can all be attributed to pneumonia. The speeding heart rate, wild arythmias can mostly be attributed to his extremely low potassium levels.

So for now, they are scrapping the idea of the chest cavity aspiration scheduled for Monday and instead administering antibiotics and potassium to treat the possible pneumonia and mineral levels.

David is starting to feel like a trapped bird and wants nothing more than to get out of there. I, however, am very grateful that they are treating him and looking for causes for all his concerns. I'll be excited is pneumonia is all it is, he can be treated and home without any more scary surgeries.

Thanks for your hugs and words of encouragement!

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Some of my friends know that David has been in declining health for the last few months and that things reached something of a crisis level this week. Today he went in for some tests, a follow-up from an ER visit on Monday. He just called to let me know they are admitting him to UofU Hospital.

I'm going to feed the boys, then take them to a friends for the night and I'm heading up to the hospital. Please say a prayer for my dear husband.

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very early Friday morning ...

When I finally got the boys shipped out and the dog squared away and headed up to the hospital I heard more from David ... he was going to have surgery first thing in the morning to repair his heart valve. I have to admit, I was freaking scared driving up there. I thought he made it through that surgery once, but could he do it again?

But once at the hospital (they have him in the medical critical care unit - a sort of step down from ICU but not on the regular floor either), I was able to talk with his surgeon and doctor (who is the Director of Cardio Thoracic Surgery at the University of Utah so he's the top dog, doesn't get any better than him) and he has decided to hold off on surgery just yet.

First, they are starting him on a course of antibiotics to see if it's an infection in his chest cavity. IF it's an infection, either the antibiotics will begin to take effect OR they'll need to operate to remove the source of infection AND/OR they will insert a syringe type thing to drain the fluid.

If it's not an infection, the course of action becomes a bit more vague. Though blood work has denied the possibility of endocarditis (infection of the heart) all symptoms point to that - a result, likely, of the infected tooth root from September. IF it's that, he may need another heart valve replacement and/or aortic root repair. Doc seems to think endocarditis is still a possibility regardless of blood work - the infection could be hiding. OR it could not exist at all.

Turns out he's lost close to fifteen pounds since September. So they are very concerned about that coupled with his symptoms. They are planning on keeping him for a 'few days' and running any number of tests on him to determine once, and for all what the heck is going on. Like I said, our possible options for courses of actions range from something as benign as IV antibiotics to open heart surgery again to repair/replace his valve and such.

I don't know what the heck is going on or what is going to happen. I was going to spend the night with him (boys are farmed out), but after hearing they were not going to operate David was a bit more relaxed and we decided I should come home and get some rest because we don't know what the next few days may hold for us. Guess I should try and get some of that rest now, eh?

I'll post as soon as I know anything worth telling.