A phone call from home...

[feren]

... has brought good news. My father had his consultation with the doctor down at the VA today. The ultrasound/sonogram/whatever that was performed last Friday has been read by a radiologist and the doctor reports that my father does not, in fact, have an aneurysm on his aorta -- his aorta is just in a slightly different place than most other people.

I guess even cardiac surgeons will err on the side of caution when presented with unclear data. My father, ever pragmatic, looks at it this way: Hell... I'd rather he be concerned and give me a test that turns out to be unnecessary than overlook it and I blow the goddamn thing when I'm out tossing hay bales in the stable. This way I'm only slighy inconvenienced. The other way? I'd be dead.

Too true, Dad.

You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.

Comments

[markvd.livejournal.com]

I think this deserves a congratulations!

[ottr.livejournal.com]

Definitely glad your pa is okay. Between the wife and I each going through scary doctor consultations and check-ups where we were told the worst, only to have a minor inconvenience, I'm happy to see the same thing held true for him.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Definitely excellent news. An aortic aneurysm, while treatable if caught ahead of time, would have been a very serious condition indeed.

[feren.livejournal.com]

Dad, having been an EMT and firefighter, put it to me this way when the initial concern was raised: There's a 1 in 100 chance of survival if it were to blow out while he was in an ER. Otherwise, he'd be a slab of meat.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if it out-and-out ruptures it's almost certain death. The aneurysm could also dissect without immediately rupturing, though, in which case you'd have a somewhat better chance (unless the dissection causes a flap of tissue to block blood flow to the ascending arteries, say). Or so I understand.