My Damaged Heart: Surgery Blog – Part 1

This is very difficult for me, because I have no idea what I’m going to write.  I usually have a few points; a few ideas or moments I want to convey before I sit down for something like this.  But I’ve not a single moment that stands out among the rest.  This is kind of the reason I am doing this; to connect back to it, to embrace it, to understand what made a difference and where I detached.  My therapist tells me this is important.  I agree.  I wasn’t going to do this.  I never seem to write about the big, huge events in my life.  Not because I intentionally try to avoid them, but because by the time

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‘Twas The Night Before Surgery

‘Twas the night before surgery and all through the hotel, not a creature was stirring, not even a micro-bacterial virus in my nasal passages. I’m sitting here at 11:30pm due to wake up at 4am and I’ve got some sort of ointment up my nose to prevent and viral infections overnight. These guys don’t take chances. I’m also very sore in my groin region due to the heart cath the other day. My arms are bruised up and down from a dozen needles going in me over the last week. This is not how I pictured my “night before” I feel awful. I’m glad I have no responsibilities for the next few days. So I’m not so sure I have

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Surgery postponed?

Last week it was sprung on me that I needed dental clearance before surgery. WTF?! My mouth is in bad shape right now. So… last night I went to the dentist’s. He denied signing off on me. I’m too much of a risk. But I should have the Cleveland docs call him to discuss it and they can get a better idea of what they’ll be dealing with. Fuuuuhhhhhhk. So this morning I called the surgeon’s office. They didn’t cancel anything and they didn’t see a need to speak with the dentist. Instead, I have a dental appointment first thing in the morning once I arrive in Cleveland… before the pulmonary appointment. I will be seen by a dentist who

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Back from Cleveland

Well, I am fairly certain I sent a billion tweets out for no one but myself. I guess that’s OK. The end result of the trip is that the doctor recommends I have the surgery. He’s not even comfortable with waiting until the Spring, when I wanted. He recommends January. Now I have to figure out how I’m gonna do this because I apparently can’t do this on my own. So… most likely my mom’s gonna have to come out with me and then when I come home, I’ll be staying with her for a little. However, we’re not sure how she’s gonna pay for all that. So it’s kind of up in the air but I have to make

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Headed for Cleveland

On Sunday morning I’ll be departing on a long drive headed for The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio to meet with one of the nation’s top specialists in the world of Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy. I haven’t seen it, but I heard the most recent episode of Grey’s Anatomy featured a patient with this condition. I will go through a full day of testing to determine if I qualify for a septal myectomy (an open-heart surgery). There is a very good chance I will qualify, at which point I will be scheduling the surgery for this coming Spring. Today was spent trying to work out approvals, etc. to make sure I’ll be covered for all this. Quite a headache. I disagree with

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I would LOVE a REAL vacation

I added a search bar to the left.  You’re welcome! Soooo… Monday is my surgery for the removal of my gall-bladder and well, I couldn’t care less.  I guess I’ve got bigger things on my mind.  But moreso, the whole thing’s just been a huge inconvenience leading up to now.  Aside from the cripping stomach aches the stone would give me and the ER trip which made me miss a day, I’ve had to intterupt my work day 6 times in the last 7 weeks to see doctors or get tests done.  Gimme a break. So here we go again, another year’s vacation time used up by sitting at home recovering from something.  And next year’s out of the question,

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