Priorities

[Lotsokids]

I got a call from my sister last night about my mom. Her heart has given her trouble for a few years now, but now in fibrillation (atrial fibrillation). They cannot correct the fibrillation because of her pacemaker. She's home and on oxygen 100% of the time now, waiting for another appointment.
She told me on the phone last night that sometimes she thinks she doesn't have much time left. She also said, "Pray for me, but don't worry about me."

She also has a medical appointment on Thursday, but my dad has planned a motorcycle trip for a week with friends. He does not plan to cancel. My mom is in her 80's and my dad just turned 80. I know motorcycling is in his blood as it's in mine. But sometimes you gotta step back and take care of family. Everyone sees this except my dad.

This is tough.

 

[Fire-medic]

I agree w/you about the family matters taking precedence.

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is something that a person can live with for years. In terms of seriousness, compared to other cardiac dysrhythmias, it's not as bad as say, Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) which wears-out the heart, using up the cardiac muscle's stores of energy and oxygen and which produces excess levels of lactic and pyruvic acids in the bloodstream. This debilitating cycle then can result in a state of clinical death, Ventricular Fibrillation (VF). At that point, the heart is no longer beating to move blood, it's just randomly quivering-away. Biological death soon follows, unless the heart receives an unsynchronized cardioversion, the electrical shock which an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) can provide, or some pacemakers also have defibrillators built-into them.

A saying in emergency cardiac care: " stable people who have chronic cardiac conditions which have become acute receive treatment with drugs, those who are unstable receive electrical therapy." The electrical therapy is either synchronized cardioversion, or unsynchronized cardioversion. Unstable patients would be those in VF or a patient in VT, but with no evident pulse, so they would get electrical therapy, unsynchronized cardioversion.

Another form of electrical therapy is cardiac pacing, usually used when the patient's heart rate is too-slow, which is often seen in 'heart blocks,' usually due to a disturbance of the path of electrical conduction thru the heart, which is how the heart beats. A slow heart rate with a normal path of conduction evident can also be 'paced,' using an external source of electrical energy delivered to the cardiac muscle. Modern EKG machines your Advanced Life Support (ALS) local fire-rescue department or ambulance company has can do this. Your Mom's condition of AF could also end up being paced, and that is in fact what her pacemeaker is there for. It's programmed to act when necessary, and may also have the defibrillation capacity, depending on the pathology of her condition.

I guess if he's set on going, you want to try to make sure Mom is well-attended the entire time, and pray that nothing happens to her during the trip.

 

[tothemax93]

I think canceling the trip would be the thing to do. What would it do to him, if she passed while he was gone. Maybe leaving on the trip is his way of coping with the situation.

 

[radley]

I think not going would put him in the hospital.