This is the day!

Dr. Lee went to see Omar late last night. No check-ups. Just to cheer on Omar. We were then advised that Omar's procedure will be moved from 7:30am to 8:30am. 

Nurses started coming in at 5am to prepare Omar for the procedure. He was given his first dose for anesthesia, as per our request. 

It was then that it finally struck me that Omar will undergo the knife. I was scared and cried for the first time. He asked me to pray with him but I ignored him knowing we won't be able to finish the prayer. 

Mama and Papa came in early with Kuya Olejoe for the send off. Kuya Dojoe and Jenny also made it. With everybody, except for Papa, we brought Omar to the operating room. 

I must say I was brave! I must be brave for Omar. 

Jenny and I thought that we can witness lots of emotions at the airport. But not anymore, nothing beats sending off at the operating room. 

Prep Day

Omar will finally have his surgery tomorrow IF...

... He can complete his blood requirements. Dr. H requested for 2 units of blood. Martha helped us with it with the Red Cross and the driver will pick it up in the afternoon as it expires fast. 1 bag has 6 units. Only to find out that Dr. H meant 2 bags and not 2 units. So here we are again begging for blood. 

Vicky, my barkada from college, sent his brother for blood donation, and he passed the screening. 

Martha is sick too but I was able to get in touch with her after lunch and we were granted with our request for 2 bags. God is with us!  

Omar and I were brought down to the operating room for the orientation for tomorrow's procedure. 

They discussed with us from preparation to the procedure to the recovery until Omar can be transferred to the telemetry. 

It's a go! We will have the procedure tomorrow. Please pray with us. 

Simply amazing.

The night before Omar's admission, he wanted to sleep over with his family at Gaiety. 

Come Sunday, it was chaos. Kids playing around. Adults getting pedicure and manicure services. Some were getting a massage. And some went to bring the kids to the mall. 

Summer and I went school shoes buying in the morning. 

Kuya and his family, together with Jenny, came to see Omar just before he gets admitted at Chinese Gen. Hospital. 

Just before dinner, we finally got a room. We had an early dinner first, headed home to finish packing our stuff and headed to the hospital. 

Papa, Mama, Kuya and Kaye brought us to the hospital. Ojay and Yang met us there as Ojay attempted to donate blood for Omar. Yes, attempted! Ojay was rejected due to high blood pressure. 

Bernie Serrano came with his girlfriend to donate but was rejected too. A friend of a neighbor posted that she donated and said that Omar is blessed for people in the blood bank donating was all for Omar. Little did she know that more were rejected than passed the screening. 

We cannot thank people enough to go out of their way just to donate for people they do not know. 

Simply amazing. 

Not once, but twice.

We heard the anticipated Sunday Mass with the family. 

Omar, again, was annointed by Fr. Mario. 

Reception followed at Pepper Lunch, Omar's promise for the kids granted. 

Blood please.

Aside from prayers, we've been asking for blood donors as well. And with Omar having type AB+ makes it even harder. 

I posted it on facebook and it's so amazing how a friend of a friend can be so willing to go out of their way just to donate blood and be rejected from the screening. 

Family, friends, and friends of families and friends are helping solicit blood for Omar. 

Got our first bag of RBC from Jenny's friend from NKTI. 

I confirmed Martha's reservation, through a friend, of 5 bags of RBC and a bag of apheresis from Red Cross to be picked up on Monday afternoon. 

I got a call from Mon that he was able to get me 3 bags of RBC as well. 

We are down now to 1 bag of RBC and we are all set for the cardiologist's requirement. I still do not know if the thoracic cardiovascular surgeon will require more. Will know that tomorrow. 

Thank you. Given a chance, even if I'm scared of needles, I will pay back by donating blood and will encourage my family to as well. 

Checking out

We are checking out this year on our wedding anniversary, and not checking in like the other years. 

We can go home now. Nuclear scan is no longer necessary. 

Had lunch at 1618 and got a cake from the inlaws. 

Did my grocery so I can leave some food for my kids during Omar's procedure. 

Final Prep

Coronary angiogram, final prep before Omar's surgery. 

Woke up at 5am of January 30 for Omar's medication and left the room for the cath lab at 6am for the 7am angiogram. 

Kuya came, bought me breakfast and joined me as we listened to Dr. Habana with Omar's angiogram's result. 

Omar's right coronaries are clear from blockage. Unfortunately, with his big aorta, the catheter cannot reach the opening for the left coronaries. Due to the expansion of the aortic valve, both the right and the left coronaries are displaced. Based from the CT aorto gram, looks like the left coronaries are clear too. But Dr. Habana will discuss it first with Dr. Lee if the nuclear scan will still be necessary. 

Thank you for your prayers. 

Final visit

Hopefully the last visit before the surgery. 

Thankfully, only 1 tooth was extracted from Omar. The other tooth was saved. 

Now, we need to hurry back home, pack our stuff, and be admitted at The Medical City for Omar's angiogram tomorrow morning. 

Blessed

God is great! He has plans for us. 

Omar's dentist happens to be the dentist of Fr. Jun Roxas, a family friend. Fr. Jun is due to see the dentist too. 

I called Fr. Jun and asked if he can give the sacrament of annointing of the sick for Omar. 

At the clinic, the dentist stepped out of his clinic and graciously offered his clinic for Omar and Fr. Jun for confession. 

Fr. Jun then called us to join them for the Annointing of the Sick. 

Thank you Dr. Giron for being the instrument to meet Fr. for the sacrament. Thank you Fr. Jun for granting our request. Thank you Lord!

Now, we're ready. 

Schedule is out.

And so we met Dr. Habana for the final admission orders and schedule. 

So we need to prepare looooottttsss of blood as Omar will be hook into a heart lung machine where the blood running through it has a chance of it being destroyed. We will be needing 10 units each of RBC, platelet and plasma. 

With his big aorta, it is compressing his lower left lung defecting it. With angiogram, they will have to use a bigger size of wire.

The team will perform a bentall procedure with Omar. But not right after the angiogram. According to Dr. Habana, from recent studies, there is a bigger chance of complications with kidney risk during post op if surgery will be done together with angiogram. 

From his pulmonary function test, it was detected that he has small airway disease but that could be treated after the operation. 

The angiogram will last for 30 minutes to an hour. We have to temporarily stop giving Omar Losartan to minimize chance of renal side effects but will double the dose of amlodipine. He will be in IV once admitted for hydration. 

Prior to angiogram, he will be given Valium 5mg and Benadryl at the Cath Lab. Local anesthetic will be applied at his groin where they will insert a wire to the artery with a catheter. Dye will be used to view the coronary artery. 

We will be admitted tonight, January 29, 2014 to prepare Omar for his coronary angiogram at 7am the following day, out on Friday Jan. 31. We will be admitted on Sunday, Feb. 2 to prepare him for his Bentall Procedure on Feb. 4, 2014. 

Please keep on praying for us and please help us scout for his AB+ blood. 

Thank you and may God bless us all. 

Sinking in.

I truly appreciate people who ask me how i am doing and praying for my strength as well, aside from Omar's of course. Jenny said, with God's grace, I am in a bubble, protecting me from worry, stress, panic etc. I am still organized and can accept things as a blessing. 

But not this morning. 

Omar had his Carotid Duplex Scan on January 21, Tuesday and may claim the result on Friday, January 24. I came to claim it just now, January 29, Wednesday, a week and a day after the scan, 5 days after the committed day of result. 

Omar's result is missing. They have to reprint it. Have it signed with the doctor again. And since the doctor just signed the original copy a week before, Omar's results were familiar to him. He refuse to sign it until he can verify it from the worksheet in possession of the technician. And Omar's name was mispelled!  Took me a good half an hour to claim a 5day old result. 

And because of that, I wasn't able to bring Winter to the lobby for the dragon dance show. 

It's a minor thing but I wanted to cut their heart and squeeze their aorta! It was so annoying and so irritating, I was almost teary eyed with anger! Omar and I are always grateful to the technicians for every tests and scans he underwent. We are suki of a local bread store in Bulacan for buying pasalubong for these great people making things easy for my husband. But with that department, I did not even thank them!  

I said sorry to God for losing my patience. I need more. I'm okay na. 

Wednesday homily

I will never withdraw my presence. - God

Answered prayer. Thank you po. 

Come back

Omar did not get his teeth extracted.  He got his fillers instead. The dentist is slowly adjusting his body with changes with his teeth. 

He gave us a letter for the cardiologist if he can extract teeth from omar. Then we will go back again today. At the same time, meet with our friend priest, who happens to be his patient too, for the annointing of the sick. 

Omar's getting tired of going to the hospitals for check ups, scans and tests. More patience and strength for Omar please!

Clearance

Medical advisory: omar and i spent the day at st lukes today for his dental clearance. 

It wasn't that easy pala. He had to get his panoramic xray so the dentist can see how deep omar's germs are. It can penetrate the blood stream daw po kasi and hit the heart. 

Omar had his cleaning today and will go back tom for the fillers. The dentist would like to extract 2 of his teeth with approval from the cardiologist. I texted the cardio already and was given a go signal provided that omar take the prescribed antibiotics before and after the procedure and no aspirin. 

Sweet

It was so thoughtful of Kuya Olejoe and Ate Kaye to cheer for Omar. They gave Omar a cake. 

Thank you! You make things lighter. 

Blessed

Upon learning Omar's diagnosis, I invited my inlaws to visit Our Lady of Manaoag before Omar's surgery. 

Unfortunately, with Omar's condition, it is not recommended for Omar to travel far and get tired. Plus, with Omar's upcoming surgery soon and my long absence from work, I need to turn over some works to be done to somebody else, we really cannot make it to the church. 

But, Mother Mary came to us instead. 

A gift from Jenny's friend. So grateful. We will bring her with us to the hospital. 

Sometime soon, Jenny will bring the kids to Our Lady of Manaoag. 

Good hands.

Ojay and Yang brought us to their thoracic friend, Karl, at St. Lukes Global City. 

We got the same recommendation from Dr. Lee with Dr. Karl - replacement of aortic root and valve. 

Dr. Karl is nice. He is a friend of Ojay. But he wouldn't want to cause any friction with Dr. Lee so he won't accept Omar. He said we're in good hands with Dr. Lee and Dr. Habana. He worked before with Dr. Habana and he's a good post op doctor. 

He gave us the same risk percentage with the procedure - 10%. 

The younger the heart, the shorter the procedure will be, faster recovery. But he advised Omar to expect the worst in terms of recovery so he won't get frustrated in the process. 

Chinese Gen is a good choice too, according to him. He is also affiliated with Chinese Gen.   

Thanks Ojay and Yang! 

My other heart

I am posting my husband's heart from his CT scan. 

The lower right is his heart while the upper left is his aorta. The normal size of the aorta should be the big tube under the heart. 

So you can see his aneurysm. That will be cut and replaced with a new one. 

Praying with Odie

Odie came to give us a Bible study. 

Orland and Mitch joined us. 

God loves us. 

God is holy. 

We are sinners. 

We all wanted to have eternal life and yet we are scared to die. 

The Verdict

We finally got to meet Dr. Nelson Lee. 

Operability size of aorta is 6. Omar's is 8. No other choice with Omar's condition but surgery, making it at high risk. 

Omar is young and athletic so bawas na yun sa high risk. 

Complication includes bleeding. We will use bioglue. But we need 30 blood donors for 40 bags of AB+. 

Next step is coronary angiogram, scheduled on Monday at Chinese Gen. Hospital and surgery on Wednesday. 

Tomorrow, we will see Dr. Habana to finalize admitting instructions.