A Couple of Trips to Tampa

Went to Tampa for a week to make sure my dad was ok. Nothing to be alarmed…all is well.

I got a call from my dad a couple of weeks ago and surprisingly, he was in the hospital. What was first diagnosed as pneumonia turned out to be a problem with his mitral valve not functioning properly, causing mitral regurgitation (basically the leaking of blood back from the left ventricle to the left atrium). And thus, open heart surgery was necessary to fix the problem.

Fortunately, my dad was otherwise very healthy and thus, there were no other major problems to resolve (like blocked arteries). His heart was out of rhythm (atrial fibrillation) due to his mitral valve problem, which was corrected with the maze procedure. While atrial fibrillation normally would not automatically mean the performance of the maze procedure on the patient, in my dad’s case, this was advisable as he was already having open heart surgery to correct the mitral valve. So, both procedures were performed.

In short, all went well and my dad is back home (5 days after surgery). He just cannot drive and have many other restrictions (not diet though, normal food day after surgery). Apparently his heart works so well now, my dad’s blood pressure was a bit high. Hopefully, this is just a temporary issue, but we shall see.

Shareena and I will be spending Thanksgiving (and fighting Thanksgiving travelers at the airport) in Tampa. We are hoping to find some usable pots and pans and cook some cornish hens for Thanksgiving.

Posted in Family | Comments Off