Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Three Years

Three years ago today I let doctors hack into my heart (via my femoral artery) and fix the constant chipmunk beating. The day after the surgery, I wrote an email to some friends cataloging my favorite moments of the surgery, which I give you below.

(Also worth noting is that the day of the surgery is the first time the Boss met my parents -- and he had to spend 12 hours with them making small talk while I was out of commission. I think our marriage was probably a forgone conclusion after that; I mean, how else are you going to get a return on investment?)

Anyway, my thoughts on the surgery, as expressed by me 3 years ago:

My favorite moments of the surgery, in no particular order:
1) Drugs. Drugs are cool.


2) Being consistently reminded that I'm like, the youngest person ever, in the cardiac ward.


3) Before the procedure I was asking when I could be up and about again and the guy was like "No running for at least a week". So, I'm ok and saying "Huh. Yeah, prob. no biking either." him: "Yeah." me "Hmmm.... could I swim?" him: "Nah, you prob shouldn't -- what the hell is wrong with you? Take a week off for crying out loud! Jeez. sit on the couch and get fat like a real American. Sheesh"


4) I was more or less totally sedated the whole time (and totally restrained on the table), but every now and then I'd get un-woozy and look up from the table and start checking things out, going "Hey, what's the monitor; what's that thing to" and the next thing I'd feel is warmth running through the IV and the world getting woozy again. Yup. They were shutting me up via meds. Ok by me!


5) They kept shocking my heart to make it chimpunk, and once they got it going, they couldn't get it to stop (umm...yeah, that's why I'm here...), so the doc leans over and we have the following conversation:
Doc: "Ok, we need to stop then restart your heart. Have you ever had a shot of adenosine?"
Me: "Many, many times"
Doc: "Great then you know what to expect"
Me: "Yes. It feel like a mack truck is downshifting on your chest"
Doc: "Exactly. Deep breath .... [push the plunger]"


6) After the procedure was done, the heart tech. runs out and puts a pen into my hand. His comment? "You gave me your heart, I gave you a pen." Awesome

1 comment:

Jessica said...

And you are still One Tough Cookie. :)