Many kind inquiries have been made for news about my recent heart surgery. This newsletter episode (episode zero) is intended to give folks a common baseline for later updates.
Recovery Escapades:
A Newsletter Of 2nd Chance Life Across Cardiac County Line Road
Episode Zero: Waking Up After Surgery
After heart surgery I woke up feeling like a beer gut biker drove his chopper across my chest, crushing my sternum. Or maybe it was a fez-festooned Shriner on a different kind of tricked out Harley.
Ever see guys in a parade with too many lights on every trim line of the bike? Shriner bikers don't look as mean as a chopper riders but the whole package weighs more. Yeah. That's what rode across my chest in the hospital halls, en route to surgery. With the ER charting it down as the real cause behind my cardiac surgery. Had to be a Shriner bike.
Otherwise, cardiac surgery went "swimmingly well". Blood now happily gurgles along within, sans worries about an exploding artery. Technically speaking this was a repair of a congenital defect - a rising aortic aneurysm. Docs replaced 2 inches of ballooned-out artery with artificial (dacron) tubing. I feel mostly good now but do shift into a dizzy lope at the drop of a flimsy paper hat.
Some days I stagger down the sidewalk next to my morning walk buddy (not condoned for any solo walks yet). Honest, I can walk-weave like a dude at happy hour who lives on a restricted diet of just salted tortilla chips and 3-for-1 Margaritas. I consume neither but I can amble about as if I did, to excess.
So I have a good day. Then I have a bad day. Then a good one. The moving average trends to the upside. Friends near and remote scold me, tell me to take it easy while I moan about having no vroom-vroom left for a 2nd or 3rd walk. I'm just now starting to agree I can slow it down and quit pushing so hard (for now).
Life now is trying to get in 9 hrs sleep at night, get up for a 25 minute walk after breakfast, do 1-2 simple errands with sister or buddy driving as chauffeur, then a snack and home for a nap before lunch, then an afternoon nap. Feels like kindergarten.
Mea culpa if all this is TMI /Too Much Information. But if I lay it down to excess in this baseline it is to conserve energy, on which nowadays I can run short without notice. Enough news for now, time to snack and sleep.
Again.
More updates yet to come from Yours Truly,
Living The Recovery Life Across Cardiac County Line Road
James V. Sullivan
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2 comments:
Nice to see you here, BCV! Welcome to Blogspot.
It's been fun to read your posts in the manner of reading documents in a file folder: most recent on top. This backwards progression has a charm of its own, like meeting someone and then getting to know them by their backstories. I'm glad you did this, Jim. Wonderful works! And now I look forward to catching up on recent and futureposts.
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