Tom Groll having Surgery

HI Everyone: I wanted to give you an update on Tom. Some of you may
already know this and some may be hearing it for the first time, but I
wanted you to know what's up.

Tom has been diagnosed with several heart problems, atrial
fibrillation, heart blockage and sick sinus syndrome, which causes his
heart to stop periodically. Over a 24 hour monitoring, the heart
paused for 182 times, for up to 3.6 secs, so he will be getting a pace
maker to deal with that. He had an angiogram yesterday and they found
out about the blockage, all three main arteries are blocked, 2 of them
80% and the other 75%, with 100% blockage to the artery that supplies
blood to the back of the heart, so that posed another problem. The
atrial fibrillation has been going on for an undetermined amount of
time, but it creates a greater risk for stroke.

So now the plan for surgery is to do a coronary artery triple bypass on
Friday, exact time unknown. At the same time, they're going to perform
a relatively new procedure called "maze" something or another, where
they make tiny slits in the atria to try to get the heart out of the
atrial fibrillation mode. The surgeon told Tom that the success rate
on that process is over 90%, so that will be a good thing if it works.
Then on Monday, he will have another surgery to install the pacemaker,
to take care of the pauses. He's at the Scripps Green Hospital in La
Jolla, and the place has a very good reputation-and most importantly,
Tom has confidence in the surgeons.

Many of you know just how hard Tom pushes himself, so it was a good
thing that we paid the visit to the cardiologist.
So, before I head off to bed, I'd like to ask everyone to keep him in
your thoughts and prayers for a successful surgery and recovery.
Thank you bunches and love to all. Denise

I'm sure we will all keep both of you in our prayers! Love ya, m