Kate had a stint put in three years ago for a bad vein situation,
Now she needs an operation to replace another vein with one from elsewhere.

She has postponed it for three weeks.

She has watched many stories on the tube about how the hospital is the last place you want to be.currently.

It's 160 feet round trip to her mail box,
last week during the rain, she was trying to get out and back , quickly.

She got well winded during the trip.

Like , close to dizzy, huffing and puffing.


she wants to get well, she is very active on a normal day

Would a Cardiac facility be a better choice right now vs a general hospital?

called her and asked,
She would be going to a cardiac cath lab , not a hospital

I’m not a MD nor have I played one on TV, but I think a cardiac cath lab would probably be safe for her.

I wish her well.

A long time ago in Princeton NJ I stopped at some dinky little gas station and this old lady ran it. Probably the oldest looking person I've seen moving on their own.

I paid for the gas and went out to pump it- She passed me, pushing me aside and pumped it herself.

She is a pleasant lady , lived in tiny town all of her life,
She is scared to get it done and scared not to get it done.
It's a hell of a place to be in life, she has no husband but many friends

quote:

... but many friends.

One of the best.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Even if everything went great at the heart lab , she's worried about post surgery complications and THen having to go to the hospital.

If she is having it done at a Cath Lab she is getting another Stent, not having open heart surgery and won't be having any bypass grafts. BTW, I was quite surprised when you indicated that your 80 year old friend was getting a bypass, because open heart procedures are extremely risky for an 80 year old and any good Heart Doc will not do a graft if a Stent is a viable option.

Good news is the recovery time for getting a Stent is measured in HOURS, not weeks. If there weren't any concerns about liability getting a stent is literally an out patient procedure where you could go home within about 1 hour after waking up. However for an 80 year old with a history of Heart Disease I would expect that they keep her in the hospital for at least a day to do observation.

Now, concerning waiting till the Covid 19 mess blows over. it's probably going to take at least 6 months or a bit more for the Hospital System in this country to recover fully from this epidemic. So based on that waiting for half a year is not a bad idea. However your friend is currently symptomatic and that status may be indicating that she needs to get a Stent ASAP. The best thing she can do is talk to her cardiologist and do what he advises. If he says DO NOT wait, then take care of it now. IF he says she can wait, then she can wait it out while being mindful about over exerting herself.

BTW, in my area Cath Labs are fairly well isolated from the rest of the hospital, access in or out of the Cath Lab from the hospital side requires the use of the correct pass card. When I had my Heart Cath they wanted to have me eat something while recovering and the food cart actually went thru the patient entrance to the Cath Lab. Probably because most Heart Doctors are totally paranoid about infection with a Heart Patient.

Concerning Covid 19. Having Heart disease puts your friend into High Risk as well as her age. Because of this you can be sure that the team who works on her if she has to go in will be hand picked for health status and have their temps check before they are even allowed into the Cath Lab. Many may also be suited up in HAzmat suits if they are available. So if she really does need a stent right now they will do everything humanly possible to see to it that she is not infected at the hospital Cath Lab.

The next Risk Point is the person, SINGULAR, taking her to the Cath Lab. That person needs to start taking their temperature at the SAME TIME every day and that time should coincide with the time they would leave their residence to pick her up. The reason for this is because your body temp can vary during the day and you need to have a tracking history to determine if you may have become infected. If on the day she needs to go in her driver needs to be as certain as possible that they are not infected. So if their temperature isn't withing the observed "normal" range they need to assume they are infected and find an alternate driver who is not infected. BTW, that means your should start finding alternate drivers now and have them track their temps now. On the day in question your friend needs to sit as far as possible from the driver and the driver should be wearing a face mask or bandana. Naturally the vehicle should be well cleaned and sterile as possible, especially in the area where your friend will be sitting. The driver should also face forward and NEVER turn toward the passenger. Gloves are also a good idea but keep in mind the point of the gloves is to protect the passenger, not the driver. Ideally the diver will have a small sandwich bag of Clorox wipes with him and can use these wipes to sterilize his hands before donning gloves and use the wipe to sterilize the gloves after putting them on. Basically keep the gloves 100% sterile and wipe them down with the clorox wipes after every single contact with a foreign surface. Note, the gloves don't have to be surgical but it's preferred if they can be obtained. If not an old pair of driving gloves or any other type of glove can work. Just make sure the gloves haven't been used for at least 2 weeks, that will insure that there is no live virus on the gloves. Your friend should be wearing an N95 mask. Generally unobtainium at the current time but I'll bet the Cardiologist can locate one. Note, the Covid virus can only survive 4 days on a hard surface, so an N95 mask can be re-used if it's put in a sealed container for 4 days.

There are always risks involved with any medical/surgical procedure. If this lady's condition has gotten so bad that she can no longer function like she wants to, then the risks outweight doing nothing and having her condition deteriorating even more. This is how I would council this lady.

Depending on her risk profile she could ask her doctor to refer her to an OBL ( office based lab) or ASC (ambulatory surgery center) This is a Cath lab in an outpatient facility, not inside a hospital.

Here is an article on the subject.

https://citoday.com/articles/2...labs-getting-started

Find a hospital well outside of major urban areas. Most are ideal right now but that will soon change. For them it is the calm before the storm.

Thank you, this helps

I was in a cath lab last year Round Christmas. It was separate from the hospital, and they had me in and out the same day. The only time I was around others was when they did the X-ray afterwards to make sure things were where they were supposed to be after the placement. I suspect her time in would be expedited with all this going on. Have her talk to her doc about exposure. Also, I’m thinking sjtill might have some great advice? Best of luck to her.

Kate should talk to her doctor and the people who would actually perform the procedure and see what they say. If they say to delay it because of the virus, so be it, but fear is no reason.

quote:

Ideally the diver will have a small sandwich bag of Clorox wipes with him and can use these wipes to sterilize his hands before donning gloves and use the wipe to sterilize the gloves after putting them on.

Highly disrecommend using Clorox wipes on hands. Wife and I started with that when this craziness started, including wrists. After a couple days of shopping, noticed that wrists looked almost abraded, not happy at all. Thought about it and went, "Duh!" Hands were okay, but not wrists. Switched to alcohol wipes & and alcohol based hand sanitizer for the hands, just use the Clorox wipes for door handles, shifters, steering wheel, etc.

ETA: With the alcohol wipes (which are most all 70% isopropol, at least all I have seen), I popped the top off, "sweetened up" with a bit of 91% isopropol, then recapped.