Saturday, May 10, 2008

smoking and heart disease

My Skinny-Minnie MIL just had open heart surgery yesterday. She had 5 bypasses.


The story is this . . .


A few months ago she got a sore on her toe (thought it may have been a spider bite but who knows) and it wouldn't heal. She finally went to the dr. about it week before last and it was decided she needed to get her circulation checked. Then they thought she needed an angiogram and we thought she might need some angioplasty (Father-In-Law has had that done several times so we weren't that concerned at that point).


They came out at the angiogram with the news that she had blockage in her heart, in her carotid artery, and in her legs. Later we found out she had significant blockage in the heart (one was 100 percent blocked, and the others were 80-90% blocked) both carotids were blocked (80% and 85%) and then the legs had pretty bad blockages (I don't really remember how much).


What stunned us was, she doesn't look like someone with heart disease. Even though we knew the symptoms and risk factors, we never thought of it. She has been a smoker for around 50 years and her dad died of a heart attack but heart disease never occurred to any of us.


So anyway, they did the 5 bypasses and in a couple of months they will take care of the carotids and her legs. Then she should feel like a whole new person. She has quit smoking and can't even be around smoke anymore.


Maybe now her only son will stop smoking since everyone else in the family has quit. FIL and I quit about 12 years ago when he had his first heart attack, I thought it was a good time for everyone to quit but MIL and darling hubby didn't bother.


I hate cigarettes.

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