My Popo has a pre-existing heart problem. One side of her valve has been damaged. Over the years, her condition deteriorated so much due to the effect of wear and tear. Her damaged valve is only hanging by threads of muscle fiber. This means that when it snaps, she will suffer a massive heart attack. For the past 3 months, she has been going in and out from the hospital. From Assunta to IJN, and from IJN back to Assunta.
Her complain is always the same; breathlessness, swelling of the feet, and water in the lungs. But for the past 2 days, aside from the usual complains, she experienced chest pain. Severe chest pain to be exact. So painful that she cried. So painful that she thought she was going to leave this place soon. We had no choice but to send her to the Emergency in Assunta yesterday.
She is now in the High Dependency Unit (HDU). Because she is so weak, the doctors can't inject any painkillers fearing that her heart may stop. Everyone was at a loss. The chest pain comes like a spasm - almost like a contraction. The doctors prescribed sleeping pills for her to sleep yesterday night.
Now, we are faced with an ultimatum. She has no choice but to go for a major open heart surgery. We are all worried, but my Popo is determined to go through the surgery. She is not ready to 'go home' yet. She knows what are the odds and what are the risks but she also knows that if she don't do it, she won't have long to live. Her breathings are so laboured now. It pains all of us to see her like this, and there is nothing that we can do to ease her pain. And the doctor said everyday is a battle for her - she could be taking her last breath.
She will be put through some tests and need to undergo angiogram to make sure there are no blockage. This is to ensure that she is stabilise enough to go through the surgery. All these will take 5 days before the actual procedure. The surgery will take 5 hours, afterwhich she will be transferred immediately into ICU for the staff to monitor her vital readings. All in all, if everything goes well, the recovery period will take 2 weeks.
On the hindsight, the success rate is 80% and she is in good hands. She is very strong-willed and with that I believed half of the battle is already won. She told the doctor that she wants to be well and get back home - permanently, instead of going in and out from the hospital.
At this point in time, all we could do is leave her up in prayer and by faith believe that the surgeon and his team would do a great job. Recovery would be speedy. And above all, there will not be any complications.
All we can do is hope and believe that God is still in control. Aside from that, there is nothing much that we can do anyway.
"With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My Salvation." Psalm 91:16
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