My grandma has diabetes and will have heart surgery?

she's had it almost all her life, and she was going to get a heart catheter in today, but there is a blockage and they can't put a stint in...so she'll have to have heart surgery. i'm worried...do you think she will be ok?? i need some honest opinions. thanks in advance!

thanks! to answer some questions, she is not obese (doesn't run in our fam), has never smoked and has never had a heart attack.

she should be ok you can have diabetics and have surgery. they will know about it and take precautions. good luck

Many factors here. General health, has she ever had a heart attack, does she smoke, is she obese. Diabetes is a very bad disease that damages a lot of organs. Just due to the fact that she is a diabetic it doubles the chances of her to have a significant complication from the surgery. It will be very important for her blood glucose level to be maintained at a level between 100 and 200 in the operating room and the ICU.. If the blood glucose is not well controlled, the risks go up quite a bit.
Here are the real questions to ask her cardiac surgeon or cardiologist:
How is her kidney function. Decreased kidney function increases the risk for surgery.
What is her ejection fraction. This is a number that tells how good the heart muscle works. number above either 50% or 0.5 (depends on the scale they use) is satisfactory. A number less than 35% or 0.3 increases risk quite a bit, and a number of 25% or less means she is going to have a hard time recovering.
Does she have any significant carotid artery disease. This will determine how well blood flows to her brain while on by pass. If her carotid arteries are greater than 80% blocked, risk goes up quite a bit, and she may require opening of those arteries prior to going on bypass.
In the hands of a good cardiovascular surgical and anesthesia team, 99% of heart surgery patients do fine. Of course the diabetes does increase the risk. Please print out this answer, show it to your family members, and discuss this with them.
Due to the very foolish and restrictive confidentiality laws passed a few years ago, the amount of info you can get from her doctors is very limited. But, if your grandmother carries your parent who is her child in to see her doctors with her, they can discuss many of these things with her permission.
Good luck to you and your grandmother