New Friend Request
Thank you for your prayers. This is a copy of letter I sent out to family. 9/24/10 11:57 AM
I'm writing this to everyone so that I only have to write it once, I'm not in a very good frame of mind right now so please forgive me if I don't clearly
explain everything. I will do my best. Ron has been in the hospital and we got some very bad news today. His aneurysm has grown quite a bit since we last had it checked. It's to the point where surgery is necessary. The problem is that the aneurysm is not only in the abdominal artery but it's in all the surrounding and attached vessels as well. A basic aneurysmal surgery can not be done for this reason. What they will have to do is one of the most difficult surgeries to do on a healthy person, but on Ron it will be more than life threatening. In a case like this they would normally reroute all the blood flow through his femoral arteries, but Cat Scans have also shown that his femoral arteries are completely blocked. He is getting no blood flow to his stumps because of it and that in itself creates another big problem. If he decides to have the surgery and survives it, he will eventually (sooner rather than later) have to have further amputation all the way up to his pelvis. That is not the immediate
problem though. Because they cannot bypass the abdominal artery to the femoral arteries, they will have to go through the kidney and liver arteries. It will be like several operations done all at one time. It will take at least five hours.It is very risky because the entire time his major organs will be without bloodflow and eschemia will take over. The kidney and liver will either partially die, or die completely. He will have no function of them. So we have two choices. We can decline the surgery and just wait for the aneurysm to burst, which it will do eventually, with no way of knowing when. In that case, Ron would bleed out within a minute or two, because the artery and all vessels are involved. He wouldn't even make it to a hospital.The second choice is to do the
surgery and prolong his life (if he survived the surgery) but his quality of
life would be what? I don't even have a word to describe what his life would be like. We have not discussed it since the surgeon talked to us this afternoon. It was too much for either one of us to absorb. He is going to discharge Ron tomorrow and wants to see us in a week. He wants us to talk about our options (all two of them.) and try to make a decision. In the meantime he (the surgeon) is going to consult with three other surgeons. He asked if we minded if Dr. Berens assisted him in the surgery if we go ahead with it. Dr. Berens is the surgeon who amputeted Rons second leg. Of course it is Rons decision and I will support him in whatever he chooses. I ask that you all keep him in your prayers.
I really can't take a lot of phone calls at this time as I just can't talk about
it yet without losing emotional control. I will try to keep everyone posted as best i can. My love to all of you.
explain everything. I will do my best. Ron has been in the hospital and we got some very bad news today. His aneurysm has grown quite a bit since we last had it checked. It's to the point where surgery is necessary. The problem is that the aneurysm is not only in the abdominal artery but it's in all the surrounding and attached vessels as well. A basic aneurysmal surgery can not be done for this reason. What they will have to do is one of the most difficult surgeries to do on a healthy person, but on Ron it will be more than life threatening. In a case like this they would normally reroute all the blood flow through his femoral arteries, but Cat Scans have also shown that his femoral arteries are completely blocked. He is getting no blood flow to his stumps because of it and that in itself creates another big problem. If he decides to have the surgery and survives it, he will eventually (sooner rather than later) have to have further amputation all the way up to his pelvis. That is not the immediate
problem though. Because they cannot bypass the abdominal artery to the femoral arteries, they will have to go through the kidney and liver arteries. It will be like several operations done all at one time. It will take at least five hours.It is very risky because the entire time his major organs will be without bloodflow and eschemia will take over. The kidney and liver will either partially die, or die completely. He will have no function of them. So we have two choices. We can decline the surgery and just wait for the aneurysm to burst, which it will do eventually, with no way of knowing when. In that case, Ron would bleed out within a minute or two, because the artery and all vessels are involved. He wouldn't even make it to a hospital.The second choice is to do the
surgery and prolong his life (if he survived the surgery) but his quality of
life would be what? I don't even have a word to describe what his life would be like. We have not discussed it since the surgeon talked to us this afternoon. It was too much for either one of us to absorb. He is going to discharge Ron tomorrow and wants to see us in a week. He wants us to talk about our options (all two of them.) and try to make a decision. In the meantime he (the surgeon) is going to consult with three other surgeons. He asked if we minded if Dr. Berens assisted him in the surgery if we go ahead with it. Dr. Berens is the surgeon who amputeted Rons second leg. Of course it is Rons decision and I will support him in whatever he chooses. I ask that you all keep him in your prayers.
I really can't take a lot of phone calls at this time as I just can't talk about
it yet without losing emotional control. I will try to keep everyone posted as best i can. My love to all of you.
First thing to do is buy lots of icecream. The kind that tastes best with tears. I will be on my knees praying for your strength.
Oh my dear friend what does one say to all of that? U poor thing.What a decision Ron has to make?U know my prayers r always w/u & Ron.Sorry I didn't write sooner, 3 doc visits & 1 test & 5 last wk.I'm embarrassed to mention it.Nothing compares to what u & Ron are facing.Wish U Many hugs, Bobby:)xo