Rearranged Cardiac Organ

Today is Sunday March 08 2009.  I am writing this from my hospital room at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, Virginia  I went in Friday for open heart surgery,  I had a double bypass.  I asked the surgeon if it would be possible to get a photo or two of my heart while it was exposed and being worked on,  He said no.  *shrug*  I know I have one and don’t really feel the need to prove it to anyone else.  I just thought it would be cool to have a picture of my heart out of the box-so to speak.  So because it couldn’t happen that way I decided instead to provide a photo of the deed after the fact.

They split the skin covering my breast bone  from top to bottom.  Then using some kind of cutting device (saw, knife, etc.) they split my ribcage down the middle and inserted a “Rib Spreader.”  They then spread the two halves of the ribcage back away from each other to expose my heart.  They cut through the pericardium to expose the heart.

In the meantime another surgeon was removing pieces of vein from my right leg in order to form arterial material to bypass the clogged coronary arteries already present.

I of course was out like a light during the whole procedure.  The surgeon told me that the operation had a 98% chance of success.  Those are damn good odds.  Would you lay down $300 on a bet returning double the original bet if you were guaranteed a 98% chance of winning?  Well. If you were lying your ENTIRE LIFE on the bet, then that 2% might look a lot larger.

What is the alternative?  Don’t take the bet and be assured that the rest of your life is very possibly going to be shortened by this heart condition not to mention some very intense moments of pain and fear as Angina comes on you and you suffer with the pain of the angina not really knowing if this time maybe it’s the final heart attack that the doctor has been promising.

So you take the bet as I did.  I already had some minor blood sugar problems as it was (minor diabetes).  The trauma of the open-heart double bypass as well as the vein graft and transfer from my leg made my little sugar problem into a big one.  They claim to be having trouble controlling my blood sugar.  I now have two separate doctors in charge of my diabetes-my regular family practitioner and the hospital endocrinologist.

Ah well.  Here it is Tuesday the 10^th two days after I started this post and I think I’m about ready to finish it up.

I came home today.  I was in a rush to get out of there.  There are way too many sick people in a hospital for my liking.  They did have some really pretty women waiting on me, and I DID like that.  And you better believe me when I tell you that I flirted strongly with every one I could.  I know.  I know.  They all saw me as an innocent aging man trying heroically to assert his medically failing masculinity and they felt no true challenge from me.  So, they humored me.  You know what?  I really don’t care.  It felt good and who knows, I might in a wild dream be able to follow up on some of the advances I made.  And even if nothing happens from the advances I made at the hospital, it did get me to thinking.   It got me thinking that I really did like all the attention I got from the pretty young women and even if they were pretending for the sake of humoring me that I know that I still have the charm in me to pull off such a grand foolish gesture to begin with.

And really, when you think of it, how much more than a grand foolish gesture do you need to possibly get something good going anyway?  Maybe I’ll try some of my nearly forgotten, but wittingly charming moves in a more conventional setting.  Watch this space.  I may let you know if I get lucky.  Then again, I may not.

So here I am.  Back in my room.  Back at my blog.  Still marveling at how CLOSE THE DOOR can get nearly 800 views in less than three weeks.  I’m mending.  I’ve taken a couple of tranquilizers and a couple of pain pills for the night.  My elderly mother came 300 miles to be by my side.  My daughter keeps jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire and then back into the frying pan and back into the fire, as naseum.

God’s in His Heaven and all’s right with the world.

It’s good to be back,  As always,

We Thank You for Your Support

Gryphon

p.s. someone ask me about the bandage on my neck in the first photo (yes, that’s really me) and I’ll tell you about it.  But you have to ask.

g.