Night owl: be glad to help when I can. I live in central Missouri, so I'm not close, alas. I'm not a cardiologist or surgeon - I'm the medical director in a prison -what the military calls a "GMO," (general medical officer; like a battallion or squadron "surgeon")& I also used to do forensics (depressing work) but I'll do what I can.

You can pretty well bet your bottom dollar that there's almost always multiple valid ways to approach medical problems & multiple opinions & detail differences in the reccomendations of even the best, well trained, conscientious & ethical physicians, so the family will likely already be starting to get various options suggested; I don't want to inadvertantly give even more conflicting info from what the treating physicians are suggesting. And also, I'm not privy to the mass of details necessarily missing from our picture of the 'ol 'Spaw as a patient, 'n also I reckon he's at a big enough medical center that the guys & gals on his team probably know very well indeed what they're doin' 'n we don't want to confuse/increase stress on Karen 'n her mom by second guessing.

Having said that, if I can maybe explain some anatomic or medical concepts to help out, I'll be glad to. I don't have time to check here as often asI'd like, so be patient if I'm not responding real fast...

Anyway, I still think there might (hope there will!) come a time when we can flood the 'ol 'Spaw w/tons o' great folkish musical stuff, so he can tell us - like a music critic, ya know, what he thinks of our - no doubt very eclectic - tastes when he gets better.

Cheers, BK