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The doctors are now concerned about his heart. Â It seems he also had fluid around his heart, which is commonly known as congestive heart failure, and is a side effect of chemo. Â He is having pain in his hips and ankles from poor blood flow; in addition, he is experiencing blurred vision.
He spent all morning in radiology having a stress test and other tests on his heart. Â Tomorrow morning, the doctors are going to do angioplasty because he is only getting about a 20 per cent output of blood from his heart.
I truly do not know if he will be strong enough to get through this chemo/radiation protocol or not. Â He spent 55 years trying just as hard as he could to destroy his body with heavy drinking and smoking.
Now, at 65, Â it has all caught up with him. Â He's my brother, and I love him; but I can tell you that he has put all of us through hell in the past with his drinking. Â I distanced myself from him for many years because I just couldn't deal with his drinking.
He went through three wives and tons of girlfriends during his drinking days. Â He has two sons who are trying to help as much as they can; but they both have to work.
Nonetheless, my other brother and I bailed him out of jail many times when he was picked up for drunken driving, fighting, or public drunkenness. Â Â We finally had to stop because the bail was getting beyond our financial capability to pay. Â It was only after he violated his bail one time too many that he finally had to serve three months in a correctional facility.
He quit drinking after that aside from a few beers about once a month when he played pool with his buddies; Â but he kept right on smoking two to three packs of cigarettes a day. Â
I'm back in my "feeling guilty" phase again about moving to Texas with him sick and Mother in the shape she is. Â I just hope I'm doing the right thing. Â Of course, I'll only be three hours away if things should turn critical.
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