Update as of 2/17/2019

After Dad was released from the hospital for the double pneumonia, he developed an issue with severe edema in both of his legs to the point that you couldn't tell where his calf ended and the ankle began. Then he had a rash form along his calves and ankles right where his socks normally sit. We called the cardiologist and Dad was advised to wear compression socks to help with the edema and increase the fluid pill they put him on while he was in the hospital.

We scheduled an appointment with the cardiologist and saw Dr. Lindsay on February 8th. Dr. Lindsay said Dad has congestive heart failure (CHF). His heart pumping function number should be over 50-55% to be considered normal. He said Dad's heart is operating at about 35%, which means it is enlarged and not squeezing right. The most normal cause of that is a blockage, and not just a little bit of blockage but a lot of blockage. It's probably been going on for a while and just wasn't diagnosed. He said that some of the pneumonia was also because of the CHF. He scheduled bloodwork for February 13 to make sure Dad's kidneys were tolerating the increase in the fluid pill. And he wanted to see Dad again on February 15th.

Since we were meeting with Dr. Bienvenu that afternoon, he asked us to have Dr. Bienvenu contact him so they could consult on the heart issue and determine a course of action from there. We have to take into account that Dad has an active cancer treatment plan. We can't put that out of our minds. If Dr. Bienvenu is cool with Dr. Lindsay doing what needs to be done with Dad, we need to move quickly because "this is not going to turn out well if we don't start moving." 

Dad is definitely going to need a heart cath to determine the extent of the blockage. At Dad's appointment with Dr. Lindsay on February 15th, they would schedule the heart cath for soon after. He stated that balloons and/or stents are not out of the equation yet, but he suspects that Dad is going to have blockage "all over the place" which more than likely will mean open heart bypass surgery. Since bypass takes a lot out of people, should we even consider bypass because it could impact the cancer treatment.

Then, he said two of the hardest things Dad's had to hear since we received the official Stage 4 diagnosis:

1. No more salt! Okay, anyone who knows Dad knows how much he loves his salt. That man can turn a tomato white from the amount of salt he puts on it! He is now allowed no more than 1,500 mg of salt (3/4 of a teaspoon) each day and that includes salt already included in processed foods. Salt is Dad's worst enemy right now and would land him in the hospital quicker than anything else. Crawfish season is here and because of how much salt is in crawfish, it is the worst thing he can possibly eat right now. Any kind of salt is not going to play well with CHF. And giving up salt is a really hard thing for Dad to do. 
2. Dad can't go back on the road until the heart situation is resolved. Dr. Lindsay said things could go from good to not so good in the blink of an eye and he couldn't, in good conscience, allow Dad to be driving where he could potentially hurt himself or others. Dad is to do very minimal driving until after the heart cath.

Dad also has a couple of leaking heart valves. Dr. Lindsay is hopeful that will improve as they treat the CHF and get rid of the excess fluid. 

So, in addition to Stage 4 Melanoma and recovering from double pneumonia, Dad has also been officially diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure and may need bypass surgery. Can we get a break here, please?!

That afternoon, we met with Dr. Bienvenu and relayed the information from Dr. Lindsay. Dr. Bienvenu took a look at the rash and said that it is more than likely a side effect of the Keytruda. He prescribed a cream to "slather on" twice a day to help. Afterwards, Dad had his second infusion, and all went well with it.

I wasn't able to attend his appointment with Dr. Lindsay on February 15th, because of some issues I'm fighting through with my health. Mom went with him and relayed that Dad definitely has a blockage but they don't know how big. He's scheduled for a heart cath on Wednesday, February 20th at 11 am. They said if they can fix the blockage with a stent or balloon, they will do that while he's in the Cath Lab, but if not, then he will need to be scheduled for bypass surgery. Mom said that if the blockage is very severe, there's a possibility he may have even have bypass surgery done that day.


Now, some good news. It requires a bit of back-story, so bear with me.

February 18th is Mom and Dad's 52nd wedding anniversary. Shortly after they got married, they lived in Fort Payne, Alabama, which is also the home of the band Alabama. I remember Mom and Dad relaying stories of Teddy Gentry going to their house for BBQ sandwiches for dinner. I also knew that Alabama is their favorite group. Back in January, I found out that Alabama was going to be having a 50th anniversary tour with a stop in New Orleans on Friday, February 15th, just 3 days before Mom and Dad's wedding anniversary! I texted Mom to see if she and Dad would be interested in going and she said yes, but they really didn't have the money because of all the medical stuff and specifically told me I was NOT to buy them tickets. Well, I knew this would be a great anniversary gift for them and I didn't want them to miss out on it. So, I got together with my brothers and their wives to see if they would go in with me to get tickets as a joint anniversary gift, and they absolutely agreed. We also decided we all wanted to attend with them and make it a family event. It would be Caden's first concert. However, after looking at the calendar, I realized Caden was scheduled to be with Richard that weekend and unless Richard was willing to swap a weekend with us, Caden and I couldn't go with the rest of the family because we have custody exchange in Sulphur, LA, that evening. Richard was not willing to swap weekends, so we weren't able to go. We bought the tickets for the rest of the group to go and decided we'd wait to tell Mom and Dad until closer to their anniversary.

Then Dad was hospitalized with the double pneumonia. Andy had already told Mom and Dad that he and Chris wanted to take them out for dinner for their anniversary weekend without actually telling them about the concert in hopes of keeping Dad from taking a long-distance run and potentially missing the concert. After much discussion, we decided to tell them about it early to give them something to look forward to and to make sure Dad wouldn't take a long-distance run. With finances the way they are, we had a strong feeling Dad wouldn't feel bad about blowing off a dinner for the chance at a paycheck, but knew he wouldn't blow off the concert as easily. They were both excited about getting to go and grateful that we had gotten the tickets.

So, this past Friday night, Andy, Deanna, Chris, Chasity, Mom, and Dad went to the Alabama concert. I asked Andy and Deanna to take lots of pictures and to make sure I got a good one to add to the blog. So, here are some pics of the concert.

Please be in prayer that the blockage isn't too severe and they are able to take care of it with just a stent or balloon procedure during the heart cath.

Angel