Today I woke up at 3:30am to get to the hospital with my wife to ensure we were there before my father-in-law was taken down to surgery. This past weekend, he suffered a small stroke. Thankfully, it was very mild with only some very minor loss in strength in his right arm/hand. However, after a CT Scan, Ultrasound, and MRI, it was determined that his right carotid artery was 90% clogged. They HAD to do the surgery to clear the plaque or he would likely stroke out within a couple weeks.

So we sat with him this morning until they brought him down to OR Prep, and then sat with him in Prep as well. He was very nervous, understandably so. Being that my mother-in-law passed away last year, as many of you know, he has been alone and we did not want him to go through this alone.

Well, we were told the surgery would take an hour to an hour and a half, but after 2 and a half hours we were getting pretty nervous. Finally the doctor came out and let us know surgery went ok, and he was doing well. The surgery was harder than anticipated, as his carotid artery is higher than normal, and a nerve was on the opposite side of the artery than normal, resulting in a more difficult surgery. But, he made it through. He is resting in ICU. In a bit of pain and uncomfortable, but alive and does not appear at this time to have suffered any setbacks during surgery (i.e. another stroke).

The one thing the doctor told us is that they had to clear a lot of clots. He didn't say how many, but I guess enough to term is as a lot. I got to thinking and asked my sister-in-law that is a nurse if the blockage in his artery could have possibly kept the clots from reaching his brain, which would have resulting in killing him. She said yeah, its a definite possibility. So the thing that could have killed him, at the same time, appears to have saved his life.