Dear cousins; Friday the 21 of February. Don will be having open heart surgery at the VA hospital in Indianapolis. They say they will take him in at 6:00am. Indiana time. I think it was February 6 when he came home from working at the church for lunch which is just about 5 blocks. He came in and played with our Dalmation and then went up stairs and came back down. We ate lunch and he asked me for some pain pills. I asked where his pain was and he said in his chest. He wouldn't let me take him to the ER. He did let me call the Danville IL.VA. His pain let up. They said bring him in so off we went. They kept him in the intensive care unit there and sent him to Indy VA. for a cardiac cath. We thought they would fix any trouble at the same time. But they came out an said the good news was that he had not had a heart attack and that the heart muscle was in good shape. The bad news was that the cornary artery disease was too bad to fix with a stint or angioplasty. We talked to the heart surgeons and they said he has three system disease. There are three arteries that are bolcked 2 on one side and one on the other. The two are each blocked 90% at the place they branch into a y. So each of those will probably take two bypasses. The other one on the other side is 70% and is a long straight blockage. They say it will probably take 4 or 5 bypasses. Thur. we go up for test. They are going to test the arteries in his arms They want to use a vein from his leg and an artery from his arm. They say the arteries from the arm are more resistant to plack build up and thus will likely last longer. Don is 55 and would like to not have to re do things to soon. Want them to last as long as possible. His Mom had open heart surg in 1975 and had a valve replaced. Both she and his brother had heart attacks when they were much younger than Don is now. Howard had one while in Vietnam. He was 21 years older than Don and passed away in 94 with a stroke. His Mom passed away in 1985. The surgery gave her 10 years. She had congestive heart surg Don's Dad died in 68 with a brain anurisum. We feel it is a miracle that they found the problem before he had a heart attack. Please keep us in your prayers. They say he will be in the hospital about a week. I will write you when we get back home. God Bless You, Candy --- [This E-mail was scanned for viruses as a service to Keeling Inc. Customers]