Sister had a heart attack

[SassyLady]

Would love to have postive energy and prayers sent my way to help my 45 year old sister get better. She had a heart attack on Monday...she has had breast cancer since she was 38 ... mastectomy and Herceptin (she has the Hurst II gene - which means the cancer is aggressive).....the Herceptin has weakened and scarred her heart.

The cancer was in control until she became immune to the herceptin. They took her off 3 weeks ago so she would get ready for a new clinical trial. When she went in on Mon to get the dye injected so they could do the contrast scans........everything shut down and she had a heart attack.

I drove 7 hours to get here and have been with her since 10:00 Mon night. She has a cardiologist, cancer doctor, kidney docter, internist, pain management and her admitting doctor. They change shifts every 12 hours so I have to reintroduce myself as the one making the medical decisions and keep track of wht they are doing. She's had EKG, echocardios, xrays, and so on and so on.

the good thing is that the hospial has a program called HELP which is that they encourage patients to have an advoate, someone who will ask questions and they encourage asking what is being done and what is being given...etc. They have taken good care of her.

We will find out tomorrow if her heart and kidneys are going to get good enought to do an angiogram/plasty???

So, I'll be in and out when I can but pleae send me anything positive you can....cause I'm exhausted and have run out of "thank yous".

Take care,
MKP

[LiberalNation]

Prayers for you and your sister. I hope she recovers.

[Sitarro]

You are in my thoughts and prayers, for both of you to stay strong and a guiding hand to the doctors........ stay positive.

[KarlMarx]

I pray that your sister recovers and that the good Lord will give you the strength to be there for her.

KM

[darin]

So Sorry MKP...Keep us posted, and holler if you need anything.

[HogTrash]

I was diagnosed with coronary artery desease about 8 years ago and along with a few adjustments to my lifestyle and the marvels of modern science and medicine, I've done pretty good.

I was contacted by the VA about a month ago informing me that CAD may be added to the list of deseases caused by exposure to 'agent orange' in Vietnam, although I suspect mine is hereditary.

Although old and warn, my heart is there with you...

[Kathianne]

Your sister has my prayers, so do you.

[jimnyc]

Will be thinking of you and your sister, MKP.

[Jeff]

Y'all will be in my thoughts and prayers

[SassyLady]

First I want to thank everyone for your kind thoughts and words. They really do help.....it's been hard, very hard watching my little sis suffer. She is sleeping comfortably for now so will give an update.

Yesterday we filled out the Advanced Directive and she named me as her agent to make the decisions.....so we had to discuss what might happen, or will happen, and what we are going to do.

One of the things is whether to donate ..... she choose to give everything to cancer research .... and then a question asked about skin tissue .... she has lots of tatoos and thought they wouldn't want that. We talked about the face transplants they are doing and I said ... you have a beautiful face with beautiful skin that might help someone. So, she agreed to donate it for non-profit use for use anywhere in the world.

I have always said take everything from me you an and use where ever and however it can be used but never thought about my "skin" organ.

At any rate, the discussion about donating caused my other sister (her twin) to get emotional .... because of the decision about the funeral. My dying sis wants to be cremated and her twin wants an open casket.......for closure. This discussion was all done very lovingly but it has not been resolved yet. However, my sister is donating everything.

Today I come in to find out that they didn't give her the pain meds or heart meds at her normal time because her blood pressure was too low. That decision was made two hours before I talked to the nurse. I asked her when she would be taking blood pressure again .... "oh, not for 6-8 hours...we are only scheduled to take twice a day". Needless to say MYYY blood pressure skyrocketed.

I said .... perhaps you don't understand that she is dying of cancer ... even though you are currently treating her for heart attack and kidney failure. She has been on pain management for seven years and if you stop her pain meds she will go through withdrawal. She said, we nurses have "parameters" that we have to follow. I said, if her blood pressure is good then you can give her the pain meds. She said I don't want to argue the point, but I have parameters. I said, I will give you 15 min to resolve this before I have her doctor paged.

She left, the head nurse came in, they took her blood pressure and it was fine and they gave her the meds. The head nurse said .... we have parameters that the case nurse was following .... I said I totally understand, but they are just parameters and it's OK to think and step outside the box when needed. But to tell me that you can't take her blood pressure for 6-8 hours because that is the protocol.....is just the wrong tactic to take with me.

So, her kidneys are functioning again (she had to take some really nasty, vile stuff ... mucomist I think) and when her heart is a little stronger they want to do an angioplast.

And, her cancer doctor is watching her closely because he knows that if these issues are not resolved quickly then she will not respond to anything he can give her for the cancer.

We asked him how long she has if....she doesn't get the cancer meds. But they keep telling us that we are focused on the heart .... one thing at a time.

And, the cancer doc and the cardio doc are at loggerheads about treatment. So, us mortals sit and wait for the gods to finish their tantrums so we know what the next step is.

Gotta go....

Thanks again for the positive energy everyone.

[Palin Rider]

I know how painful it is to lose a family member before their time.

Carry out her wishes as best you can, and keep the good memories of her close to your own heart.

[SassyLady]

They are going to do an agiogram tomorrow morning and see what is causing the blockage ...and will do an angioplast or stent .... and see if they can get heart strong enough for her to take the cancer protocol they wanted her to start soon.

I'm just dumbfounded to find out that the cancer center overdosed her on the dye the injected ... it causes renal failure.

At any rate....I'll let everyone know how the prodcedure goes.

Nite all! Thanks again for all the kind words!

[Abbey Marie]

You did an awesome job with the pain meds/BP issue. Your sister is lucky to have you as her advocate. Parameters my ***!

I will pray for your sister and you today and until you let us know things are all better.

Love to you!

Abbey

[darin]

Where do I sign up to get MKP to advocate for ME when I fall ill?

[SassyLady]

Did angiogram....no blockages...so no stents or plasts. However, her heart is very weak due to the chemo and years of alcohol abuse. She did have a mild heart attack, might have had a clot but she's been on blood thinners since she was admitted so they were never able to definitively see anything.

The cancer doc said this morning that there are no trials to get her into from this point.....and her heart is so weak he's not sure when he can start her on anything else. Her cancer is very aggressive and even though she has survived this, she knows that things are bad.

We did change her pain meds to fentenol (sp?) from morphine so that we have better "parameters" to work with. She is doing much better on that ...

They still haven't told us if/when she will go home. Even if her heart gets strong enough for the new chemo they want to start her on, her cancer doc wants her here when he starts it just in case she has a reaction.

At any rate, I am sitting in her room watching her sleep and trying to keep all the family and "drama" from creeping in......