Dear Smothers Friends and Family; Don is going to have open heart surgery on Fri. the 21st. at the Indianapolis VA hospital. Please keep us in your prayers. He has been short of breath alot lately and a week ago last Wednesday he had some chest pain. The Danivlle IL. VA. kept him in intensive care and sent him by ambulance to Indy. for a cardiac cath. We had expected that if he had andy blockage that they would fix it with a stint or angio plasty. When they got into the cardiac cath. they found what they called 3 system disease and said that it was to extensive to repair in those ways. They scheduled him for open heart surg. and let him come home to rest till then. The good news is he has not had a heart attack and the muscle of his heart is in good shape. Two of the arteries are blocked 90% where they branch off into a Y and one on the other side is blocked 70% but will be easier because it is a long straight blockage. The interesting thing is he has been so short of breath lately and they said that diabetics sometimes don't have the warning signs of pain and that the shortness of breath is their warning sign So if any of you Smothers are diabetic and are having shortness of breath more than usual tell your Dr. Don's only brother was 21 years older than him and he had a heart attack in Viet Nam many years ago. He passed away with a stroke in 94 I believe. Nina we will keep your brother in our prayers and Ron you will be in our prayers also. God Bless You all; Candy --- [This E-mail was scanned for viruses as a service to Keeling Inc. Customers]

Blessings and positive thoughts, to: Candy, Nena and Ron. Until Next time, Jan ----- Original Message ----- From: Don & Candy Smothers <candy@k-inc.com> To: <SMOTHERS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2003 10:57 PM Subject: [SMOTHERS] Please pray for Don having open heart surg Fri.