Showing posts with label elderly surviing open heart surgery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elderly surviing open heart surgery. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Update on My Dear Bobby--83 year old recovering from Complications Due to Open Heart Surgery


I just want to express my sincerest thanks to all of you--the wonderful friends of Ask Ariel Your Pet Nutritionist and Ariel Rescue whose prayers and kindness have helped my dear Bobby to survive. I sincerely apologize I haven't been able to keep up with the blog but my time had been stretched very thin attending to his care. As you know, I am passionate about holistic care and my staff and I are deeply concerned about each one of your pets. We always try to present you with all of your options in treating your pet's condition--whether it be conventional veterinary care as well as holistic veterinary alternatives. It has been so frustrating with the care of Bob, who has suffered terribly as a result of overmedication, that the doctors were not at all receptive to any type of holistic care. I will never forgot how stunned I was that the doctor REFUSED to give him Vitamin B but authorized morphine and opiate drugs. The overmedication and oversedation of the elderly is rampant because many times the doctors, hospitals and nurses will authorize medications that a young person might be able to tolerate but an older person might not be able to process and clear through their kidneys and liver. This is exactly what happened to Bobby. Now his heart is running ok but he has a lot of problems related to his "hospitalization".

I am sure there are many of you who have elderly parents who have undergone similar experiences and if you would like to share them, please feel free to post them here. It might be therapeutic for all of us to know that we are not alone and that someone else has experienced a similar situation.

In any case, I am happy to report that by the sheer will to survive, Bobby is now in a nursing/rehab center and after 6 long weeks of Critical Care, is breathing pretty well on his own. Prior to his surgery, he was taking care of my Mom (she has Alzheimers and MS) and they were traveling and having fun. He was driving, cooking and leading a pretty normal life. Now, he is bedridden and still after 2 months, does not have the strength to move himself in the bed or to stand up. He is getting intense physical therapy and each day shows a little more progress. My dream is that he will eventually be able to walk again with a walker and spend the rest of his days at home with Mom. Right now though, he lost his ability to swallow (this is common with older folks but in his case, it occured because he was overmedicated and had to stay on a breathing machine too long which damaged the muscles) and is on a feeding tube. Yesterday, was his first day being dressed when I took him for his doctor's appointment. This was a great move in the right direction. Thanks again for all your care and concern. You will never know how much it has meant to me.