During a routine annual physical (which everyone should get), our internest, Dr. Leonard Weistrop, managed to catch a 1-2/6 heart murmer. He said it was very faint but to be on the safe side he wanted to have it checked. He ordered an echocardiogram for the following week (October 25th) but the results were inconclusive. Dr.- Weistrop then decided that it was important to rule out potential problems and so he ordered a CT Scan. The scan revealed a 4-7cm cardiothoracic aortic aneurysm.

Thanks to Dr. Wesitrop's thorough and complete followup and outstanding hearing, this potentially deadly condition was caught before it was able to progress. Dr. Wesitrop immidiately put us in touch with a surgeon and we bagan the process of researching this condition and its treatment. General concensus was that this was still early enough that it was not an eminant threat and so surgery to repair the aorta and replace the valve could wait until the following week. This gave us time to look into the available surgeons in the area and the facilities they have at their disposal.

As luck would have it, Milwaukee is home to one Dr. Gordon Olinger, the head of cardiothoracic surgery at Froedert Hospital and The Medical College of Wisconsin and a seasoned expert on this particular repair. After meeting with Dr. Olinger, it was decided that this coming Thursday, October 31st, 2002, my Abba would go in for a Heart Cath and Angiogram and then on Friday, November 1st, 2002, he would go in as an inpatient for the surgery. Somewhat last minute, we were informed to our delight that Dr. Judith Kersten, world renowned anesthesiologist and Professor of Anesthesiology would be the anesthesiologist for this surgery.

Check the Latest Updated section for the very latest information on my Abba.

Click here for a copy of the letter my Abba wrote about this surgery just before he went in - in Microsoft Word Document format.