Clinton McClure

My dad had a triple bypass today.

My dad has been stationed in Iraq since the end of April. He's 55 and is in pretty good shape. Because of his position and rank, he is able to communicate with my mom and myself at least every other day if not every day. Tuesday morning my mom gets a phone call from Dad's Sergeant-Major saying he's being airlifted to a hospital in Baghdad because he's having trouble breathing but they cannot release any more information at that time. A few hours later, another call comes in from Dad's CO. He says they're medivacing him to an airforce base in Germany and someone will be in touch with us as soon as they know something. Later on that evening, Dad is able to call from Germany to say they've run all sorts of tests on him and they all came up with nothing but they're going to do an angiogram (sp?) on him later that day to see if it was his heart or just indigestion. No word at all Wednesday while he's waiting for his test results. Thursday morning early, a nurse from the hospital in Germany calls and leaves a number where we can reach Dad at the hospital. Mom calls and gets to talk to him and he says the results came back showing three arteries blocked and the doctors had already scheduled surgery for him later in the afternoon. We've had no word since so we're all on pins and needles here. It's bad not knowing what's going on but it's even worse when you're thousands of miles away waiting on a phone call. We called the Red Cross after talking to Dad and they're supposed to wire an inquiry to the hospital to notify his CO to call as soon as he gets word on Dad's condition, which they said my be up to three to five days. It's going to be a long weekend here.

Don't Panic

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Ricardo C

Man, an hour wasted on this sig! Thanks, Toshiba! :p

Alex S

Clinton, your family is in my prayers.
Have faith.

brentl

I hope your dad's alright Clinton.

Brent

Leila Dougan

I hope everything turns out well for you, Clinton. I really understand the distance thing, though, because my mom just got back from Iraq 2 weeks ago.

Moe Maishlish

I'm sorry to hear about your father Clinton. If it makes you feel any better, bypass surgery is pretty much a routine operation these days, and doesn't hold the same risk-factors as it did 10-15 years ago.

My father has had two heart attacks, and after the second one also required bypass surgery. He was scheduled for triple-bypass, and after the surgery was finished the surgeon informed us that they doubled the bypasses and performed 6 (i.e. six arties were blocked, so they did a sextuple bypass) instead of 3. My father's doing great, and outside of regular doctors visits & checkups is in good health.

Would it be possible for your family to travel to Germany to be with you father?

Moe.

- Confidence implies the knowledge of one\'s limitations, while arrogance implies that one does not have any.

- There\'s no such thing as \"normal\". The secret is to find someone that\'s screwed up in a way that seems \"normal\" to you.

Bob Graz

Clinton, Stuff like this is scary especially when you're far away but they found the problem in time to fix it. Good luck to you and your family. I'm sure your dad will do fine.

Dome Vongvises

A bypass is freaky to watch. I got to see one. It's amazing how they do it. If you read up on how they do it, or get an opportunity to see one, you might feel better about it.

Jay H

Best of wishes to your father and your family, Clinton.

Peace,
Jay

You are the crispy noodle in the vegetarian salad of life

Clinton McClure

Thanks for the replies and prayers. I've been away from my computer for a few days. I'm planning my wedding and started a new job while this was all going on.
It turns out Dad's was like Moe's father. A Red Cross worker called the evening after surgery and said they had performed a 6 bypass instead of a triple but he did great. Another phone call this morning told us he was recovering very well in a step-down unit and, with any luck, he should be well enough in two or three days to call us.

We would have gone to Germany but we didn't know it