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EvilGeoff -> Just in case anyone was wondering at my silence lately... (9/3/2006 8:11:05 PM)
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Hi folks,
I know I've been rather quiet for a while, please accept my apologies. I'll be explaining why here directly. I'm not looking for any attention, per se, but I would ask for your good thoughts and prayers for a swift recovery.
On Tuesday, August 22, I was admitted to the hospital after suffering some intense chest pains. I suffered what the doctors described to me as "a mild heart attack". My EKG's looked good (ie, no major arrythmia's or disfunction detected in the electrical signal from the heart), but the enzyme they now check for heart attack was present. A heart specialist checked further, found some indication of blockage in my EKG, and so scheduled me for a catheritization where they would inject dye into the heart, check for a blockage or two, then insert "stents" (essentially small stainless steel spirals that would be expanded in the blocked artery(ies) to open them back up to good blood flow).
Nothing to panic about, so far, but I figured in the hospital for a few days with no internet access was survivable. *grin*
The cath procedure was done as scheduled on Wed, the 23rd, but they found far more extensive problems than one or two blockages that stents would clear up for me. ALL of my coronary arteries had blockages. Not good. They stopped right there, backed up and called for a new strategy for the next stage of treatment.
Yes, fans, they called in a chest cracker and on Thursday they set me up for a quadruple bypass. That was supposed to happen Friday, but I got bumped by the head heart surgeon when they got a patient who was in much worse shape than I was. My surgery got bumped back to Monday, the 28th. I was in the hospital over the weekend of course (Hey, would YOU send $10k a day home for the weekend and risk that insurance cash cow kicking the bucket? I think not! *LOL*).
I got a computer for the weekend, though, and hopped on line. But it seems that while the hospital provides wireless internet, they freaking SCREEN FOR ACCEPTABLE CONTENT!
YAAARRRRRR! No porn or adult content allowed in the Cardiac Care Unit! I could check my email accounts, and non-adult Yahoo groups, but anything with sex, BDSM or alt on the page was a no go! Curses! I couldn't get to Collarme to tell y'all what was going on! (Made for a boring weekend on the web, I gotta say!)
Anyway, they cracked my chest bright and early Monday morning, the operation went swimmingly well it seems, and I've been on the mend ever since. HOWEVER, comma, it appears that being intubated while conscious triggers my claustrophobia pretty badly. I went three rounds with someone in recovery, and finally my body decided to resort to puking to get them to pull the tube out. I'm sure that was no fun to clean up, and I'll know if I ever have surgery again to telll them to take the damned tube out BEFORE I wake up...
I spent a blurry Monday night and Tuesday morning in the ICU, I remember a few folks stopping in to visit, but have absolutley no clue what we talked about. I just hope that I didn't collar any ICU nurses... *grin*
I was transfered to the regular recovery part of the heart hospital Tuesday afternoon, and got sent home today (Sunday, 09/03/06). So now y'all are all caught up (for the most part) on the "Adventures of EvilGeoff" for the last couple of weeks.
I'm in good spirits, good health (all things considered), with a very good prognosis. Better this was found and taken care of NOW than left to fester undetected for a time to where I might suffered a fatal heart attack. As I always say: "Getting older beats hell outta the alternative!"
I'm not humble, I would appreciate any and all good thoughts, prayers, well wishes and other expressions of speedy recovery. Those of you going "Damn! They missed!" Please, let me know, so I can put you on my "Persons To Be Watched" list! *lol*
Nice to be back, but don't expect any weighty posts for a while!
- Geoff
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