Heart Surgery Inevitable
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Dad’s Story
As many of you heard Dad (William Merrill Sr) underwent Brain Surgery to take out a tumor located on his Pituitary gland after suffering from a massive migraines for over a week. Between the ER visits, specialists, Heart doctors and now the surgery the medical bills have become out of hand. He was then transferred from Concord to Dartmouth to be seen by some of the top neurosurgeons. Our family has suffered some serious medical expenses and they keep coming. Dad did not have health insurance and now will have to pay the remaining costs out of pocket, which will continue to climb as he recovers and has follow up appointments. The travel costs alone back and forth to Dartmouth to see him during recovery have taken a toll on their one income household. We hoped that he would be sent home to recover and focus on keeping his Afib under control.
It’s been a few months now and the punches keeping getting thrown Dad’s way. A heart monitor was placed on dad last month to help start working on his A-fib. We had hopes a full recovery from his brain tumor removal and a path towards better health was in the future. Come to find out after shipping the heart monitor out that Dad’s heart was stopping without warning for 7-10 seconds at a time multiple times a day. A scary thought for all of us. Surgery was planned and they put in a pacemaker several weeks ago to help get his heart beats back on track. They thought this would be a positive and help control the Afib. Again we were wrong.
This is brings us to the last four days. Dad was scheduled to have a cardioversion to finally and hopefully put an end to the Afib. Good thing the surgery was scheduled because the doctors upon testing his heart before surgery found a plethora of fluid around it. No cardioversion and Dad’s body had a reaction to the Vitamin K they were giving him. Today we found out that the fluid was in fact blood. Over 400CC of it. They put in a drain and so far have removed about 200CC’s. The blood thinner that Dad has been on since his brain tumor removal has stopped working and now surgery is on hold in hopes his body will start to heal itself a process that could take 4-6 weeks.
With only one income and the medical bills that will continue to pile up my Mom and Dad are in great need of support. Dad is unable to qualify for insurance and they can only receive so much help from the hospital. Two more surgeries will likely be needed if they can or cannot control and stop the blood from surrounding his heart. We have hopes to avoid putting in a vent to move the blood away from his heart and direct it towards his stomach. This is not what we as a family had hoped for and the process toward recovery is again filled with bumps that we hope to get past together.
Thank you all for your blessings and prayers and we will continue to update you all as we know more.
Merrill Family
As many of you heard Dad (William Merrill Sr) underwent Brain Surgery to take out a tumor located on his Pituitary gland after suffering from a massive migraines for over a week. Between the ER visits, specialists, Heart doctors and now the surgery the medical bills have become out of hand. He was then transferred from Concord to Dartmouth to be seen by some of the top neurosurgeons. Our family has suffered some serious medical expenses and they keep coming. Dad did not have health insurance and now will have to pay the remaining costs out of pocket, which will continue to climb as he recovers and has follow up appointments. The travel costs alone back and forth to Dartmouth to see him during recovery have taken a toll on their one income household. We hoped that he would be sent home to recover and focus on keeping his Afib under control.
It’s been a few months now and the punches keeping getting thrown Dad’s way. A heart monitor was placed on dad last month to help start working on his A-fib. We had hopes a full recovery from his brain tumor removal and a path towards better health was in the future. Come to find out after shipping the heart monitor out that Dad’s heart was stopping without warning for 7-10 seconds at a time multiple times a day. A scary thought for all of us. Surgery was planned and they put in a pacemaker several weeks ago to help get his heart beats back on track. They thought this would be a positive and help control the Afib. Again we were wrong.
This is brings us to the last four days. Dad was scheduled to have a cardioversion to finally and hopefully put an end to the Afib. Good thing the surgery was scheduled because the doctors upon testing his heart before surgery found a plethora of fluid around it. No cardioversion and Dad’s body had a reaction to the Vitamin K they were giving him. Today we found out that the fluid was in fact blood. Over 400CC of it. They put in a drain and so far have removed about 200CC’s. The blood thinner that Dad has been on since his brain tumor removal has stopped working and now surgery is on hold in hopes his body will start to heal itself a process that could take 4-6 weeks.
With only one income and the medical bills that will continue to pile up my Mom and Dad are in great need of support. Dad is unable to qualify for insurance and they can only receive so much help from the hospital. Two more surgeries will likely be needed if they can or cannot control and stop the blood from surrounding his heart. We have hopes to avoid putting in a vent to move the blood away from his heart and direct it towards his stomach. This is not what we as a family had hoped for and the process toward recovery is again filled with bumps that we hope to get past together.
Thank you all for your blessings and prayers and we will continue to update you all as we know more.
Merrill Family
Organizer
Catrina Ann
Organizer
Hillsborough, NH
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