u/corgisfirst

Hi. I'm hoping to gain some insight and advice on my dad's bypass journey. He's so frustrated and I feel terrible for him.

One year ago, my dad (71) had a stroke and has since then had many cardiac episodes and ongoing struggles with heart failure. At one point, his heart was working at 25%. He was hospitalized every month last fall until they found a good medication for him in late November. In February, he got an angiogram, an MRI, and other tests done. In March, when his doctor felt his heart was strong enough, he was given the green light for a triple bypass. His very last test was an ultrasound to look at the veins in his legs for grafting. He told me it was weird because, up to this point, everything had been meticulously laid out and scheduled, but the ultrasound was last minute and rushed. They found one vein that looked good.

However, 2 days before his scheduled surgery last month, a PA saw a rash on his leg, told his doctor, and the surgery was postponed till he got it under control. That was good because he'd had the rash for a while and wasn't doing anything about it. The rash cleared up in a few weeks. But, when he told his doctor, the doctor said, "Now we must redo all the tests", which made my dad confused and disappointed, of course.

Then, just yesterday, my dad met with a heart specialist (I don't remember what he said, but it was a type of heart doctor he hadn't seen before). He didn't know why he was there, and the doctor said, "We need to tweak your medications to get you ready for surgery. Then, you'll redo all the tests." My dad was shocked, to say the least. He was feeling good on the medication he's now been on for 6 months. And the communication has been so piss-poor. He said he felt blindsided because all he knew was, he was so close to surgery, had a rash, cleared it up, and now has to start from square one. He's very confused, as am I. I try to console him, but he's so depressed. Is it normal that he's starting over from square one?