Hello friends and family, for those that may not know, my sister Olivia (affectionately known as Libby) has been admitted to Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland for an unexpected hospital stay. She went in for a routine procedure on the 6th (the day after her birthday), but the cardiology team discovered that she needs urgent open heart surgery for a triple bypass. She has multiple blockages, some almost 100% completely blocked. We are very fortunate that this was found before the unimaginable happened. Her surgery is scheduled for early Monday, February 9th and she will remain in recovery in Oakland for around a week before coming home.

As if this wasn’t concerning enough, an MRI also showed that she had a recent stroke in the back of her cerebellum, which none of us knew about. The neurologist advised that it likely occurred a few days ago, so it is new. He will continue guidance and order more testing to confirm the root cause so we can prevent further strokes. Luckily, it occurred in a very small area and they do not anticipate any interference with the heart surgery.

As you can imagine, these unexpected medical events have their financial burdens, along with Olivia having to miss over a month of work or more. Our mother Erna and I will take turns helping her recover at home until she’s back with 1000 times more energy than she had before! Any help is welcome and appreciated but of course encouraging thoughts sent her way are more than enough. We all know that she is very loved and any supporting words will make her day! Thank you for reading and sharing if you like - we can’t wait until she’s feeling so much better and can have a belated birthday for her with an even bigger reason to celebrate.

Chris and Erna (Olivia’s Brother and Mom)