April 16, 2010
Slight Disability
Been feeling poorly for a few months, had a persistant cough since Christmas. Started getting chest pains and for the first time since prescribed used my Nitrostat. Made appointments with the doctor, she refers me to Cardiology. I get a Echogram (same as an expectant mother's sonogram, except looking at the heart -- that little bugger really jumps around!). Get scheduled for a Stress Test, but when they hooked me to the ECG they sort of neglected any stress. Not a good sign. Scheduled for an angiogram....
I am to go to the Kaiser Sunset Cardiology on April 13th, check in, have the procedure, go home, recoup for a day, go back to light work. The procedure involved running a tube through an artery in the groin up to the heart, leaving a rather nasty hole in the groin area. Not much different from the Stent Insertion of 12-13 years ago that saw me out on benefits for 11 weeks. And balloon angioplasty and stent insertions were a possible add-on and which would have me in the hospital a few more days with several weeks recovery.
Instead, they take a look and admit me. Want to do a Quadrauple Bypass -- the artery with the stent is totally blocked, the other three arteries only mostly blocked. They give me a 90-95% chance of surviving the surgery.
So, April 14th, I go into this rather large operating theater and wake up a few moments later, or eight hours depending on which time line you follow, with a tube in my throat, which they whip out and I again get to breath unassisted. They only did a Triple Bypass -- the area fed by the blocked stent was too dead to revive.
My Sternum has been split, the cheast prised open, veins taken ferom the leg to be grafted to the heart, close up, wrap wire around the sternum to hold it together, add a few drainage tubes, attach a few wires to the heart, sewn up, and I am now recovering....
