Dad has heart failure. He’s 81 years of age. He also got Chronic Kidney Disease (ckd). Doctors talk about putting a stent. With his age and kidney problem, should he do the procedure? Will he have complications afterward? Is it beneficial?
CM's two questions are the most important ones out there! If your dad were late stage ALZ and they wanted to put in a stent, you would be scratching your head about why they would want him to live longer. But in most cases, a stent prevents a heart attack and makes life better for a longer time. There are risks, and it does temporarily fix the plumbing extending its life. If your dad is hoping for a heart attack to take him out, this should slow the progression. There are so many things you have to consider for each person.
Ask the doctor about the technical side and think hard. There's a great book called Being Mortal by Atul Gwarnde that talks about end of life issues, including having the conversation about when to bring someone back - do you want to be alive if you can only watch tv, or do you want to be able to do much more as your minimum? For heart patients like my FIL, it was really important to his decision making process.
Yes, it should be beneficial. It will improve his circulation - like putting a shiny new section of rigid pipe through a manky old furred-up flexible hose to keep it open. This should in turn improve or at least protect his heart function and his kidney function, both of which depend on a good blood supply.
But - gosh I'm boring about this - if you have questions PLEASE put them to your father's doctors, don't look them up on the internet. You might find this approach helps them explain the points you really want to know about:
what happens if we do this? what happens if we don't do this?
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Ask the doctor about the technical side and think hard. There's a great book called Being Mortal by Atul Gwarnde that talks about end of life issues, including having the conversation about when to bring someone back - do you want to be alive if you can only watch tv, or do you want to be able to do much more as your minimum? For heart patients like my FIL, it was really important to his decision making process.
But - gosh I'm boring about this - if you have questions PLEASE put them to your father's doctors, don't look them up on the internet. You might find this approach helps them explain the points you really want to know about:
what happens if we do this?
what happens if we don't do this?
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