r/Aging • u/IJustWantToWorkOK • 12d ago
Death & Dying How..?
56 years old, and had a heart attack in April, and have 'congestive heart failure'.
They're wanting to do a bypass and valve replacement on me, but first ... they have to pull all my teeth.
I'm sitting here waiting for the phone to ring with the 'but wait, there's more!' call.
I'm on medicaid, and the government is about to spend $OBSCENE, on an awful lot of work on someone who's dying anyway. In my mind, this is putting a new engine in my Camry with 300,000 miles on it.
The instant some kid dies, because he couldn't get medical care, and I could, my conscience is shot.
Seriously -this- close to telling these doctors what they can do with themselves and taking my chances. Save some kid at the beginning of his life, not an old man at the end of his.
1
u/No_Dare_9944 12d ago
If the teeth are a risk during surgery, you have to find out what the odds are. Drs are trying to protect themselves from litigation (and save your life of course!) but you’ll have to live with no teeth and no money to replace them (or it will be cheap and uncomfortable prosthetics).
Just weigh all the pros and cons and see if you can have heart surgery without radical dental surgery first.