My mom had surgery yesterday, a Carotid Endarterectomy. This is a procedure where a surgeon opens the carotid artery and removes plaque that has blocked it. In her case, this particular artery, which carries blood from the heart to the brain, was 90% blocked. It was a relatively quick thing and she was only in the hospital overnight.
Think about that. They cut open my mom's neck, clamped the artery that supplies blood to the brain, cut that open, cleaned it out, patched it up, sewed her up and sent her home the next day. She was up walking around today and is now at home sleeping next to me.
Not long ago, her first symptom from this aspect of the disease would have been a stroke. Because my mom went to the doctor when she was 46 and discovered, through things like ultrasound and advanced x-rays, that she had this issue, she was able to break the cycle in our family history. Heart disease is far too common in our family tree, see previous blog entry titled "Pink is for Boobies" for more info. For almost 20 years after the first diagnosis, she was closely monitored at one of, I would argue THE most, prestigious medical facilities in the world, which happens to be 40 minutes from her house. Earlier this year, they decided it was time to remove this obstruction. A few years ago, they did a similar procedure to restore the blood flow to her leg, giving her the ability to walk my daughter to the park again.
I always say one of my biggest Facebook peeves is when someone says something like "at the hospital, pray for mom," with zero other details. This is partly because of the "look at me, I need attention" aspect of this tactic, but it's also for the easy out people get with this method of helping. Yes, pray for my mom if praying is what you do. But also pray for places like Mayo Clinic and pray for the people who provided such compassionate, human, unique, moving and miraculous care to my
mom. Pray for continued medical advances that let grandmothers watch their grandchildren grow up. Even more than that, donate your time and money to the places that do the research that changes family trees. Might want to think twice about that cheeseburger too, but bygones.
