|
Sactobob: I didn't mention this in my other post, and felt to include it.
As I already mentioned Brian had an EKG on Wesnesday, a stress test on Thursday, a heart catherization on Friday, and surgery on Monday. When I have mentioned to Karen about the surgery and perhaps Brian didn't need it her answer is always the same. "You weren't there. You don't know how bad it was."
Apparently when Brian went for the EKG his personal physician told him that "He was lucky to be alive. He should have been dead." And in the hospital the cardiologist said to Karen that her husband probably wouldn't make it without the surgery.
From the looks of things "fear" took over here. What would you have done if a cardiologiist had told you your husband would be dead without the surgery? You'd probably sign the consent form.
Unfortunately, other options were never considered here. Dr. McDougall says that he recommends bypass surgery only if "the pain is incapacitating and hasn't been taken care of with diet and drugs."
Unfortunately, in Brian's case neither option was tried. Diet and drugs were never considered. My husband and I talk about this a lot. We would have 1) put Brian in the hospital and put him on McDougall immediately. 2) given him drugs for pain and to lower his cholesterol. We figure in the hospital he could have been monitored. We would have done that for a while. If he didn't improve, then and only then would we have consented to the surgery.
Brian also has a low tolerance for pain. He has admitted to us that he is a "wus" when it comes to pain. So we can only guess at how much pain he was in. And Karen just keeps telling us "You weren't there. You don't know how bad it was."
I guess you could say that the choice of bypass surgery was taken out of Brian and Karen's hands and put into the hands of a cardiologist. Both of them could have chosen a different option, but chose instead to listen to the doctor. We will never know what could have happened if they had chosen instead diet and drugs.
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
