{"id":76,"date":"2009-05-31T04:41:38","date_gmt":"2009-05-31T11:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whufu.com\/wp\/?p=76"},"modified":"2020-05-15T00:46:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T07:46:15","slug":"the-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whufu.com\/wptest\/?p=76","title":{"rendered":"the Operation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, here we are, the day before the big day.\u00a0\u00a0 There is one more test this morning, some kind of sonogram-ish thing to check the condition of my cardioid arteries, and I am good to go.<\/p>\n

In the evening the barber shows up for my full body shave.\u00a0 He was a funny little dude that looked exactly like Mr Bean<\/a> in those BBC comedies.\u00a0 He shaved my chest, then my arms and armpits.\u00a0 So far, great!\u00a0 The staff is constantly plastering me with these little plastic stickers with snaps on ’em to which they attach electrodes for their magic heartbeat readings.\u00a0 When they’re done, the nurses just rip ’em off my hairy old man arms and shoulders and chest, and it hurts, and it’s one of the ongoing small humiliations of the whole process, so taking the pain out of that process is just dandy by me.<\/p>\n

But then he shaves my legs, and even my feet and big toe hair (I ain’t no f—ing Hobbit for chrissakes!), and finally, he shaves the pubes.\u00a0 Maybe this is old hat for some of you, but this was a new one on me.\u00a0\u00a0 Oddly, he does NOT shave my back, or head.\u00a0 In his halting English the Sunday staff doctor said these are not “possible infection points” so they don’t shave ’em. Doesn’t quite make sense, but that’s what they did.\u00a0\u00a0 This was one of those many times when I really missed sharing a spoken language with all the busy people surrounding me.\u00a0 Finally, Mr Bean gave me an excellent old-school straight-razor shave, so I was feeling like a million dollars … until the next event …<\/p>\n

For our final humiliation of the pre-op, nursey shows up with an evil-looking six inch long enema <\/strong>tube, the very thought of which reduced me to quivering jello..\u00a0 In fact I just couldn’t let her do it.\u00a0\u00a0 (“You must Mr John, for the defecation!<\/em><\/strong>“).\u00a0\u00a0 Eventually she left me in the bathroom with the device to “work it out for myself” so to speak (ha,ha), which I more or less did.<\/p>\n

After THAT excitement I slept pretty well, and managed to wake up and watch my usual 4AM NBA game and go back to sleep, and then it was Monday morning.<\/p>\n

About the actual main event , I have not much to report.\u00a0 Around 11AM nursey came in, told me to roll over and jammed a BIG ole needle in my butt, “for the relaxation<\/strong><\/em>“, and that was pretty much all I know about what happened till until Tuesday afternoon.\u00a0\u00a0 I sort of remember looking around the room, deciding whether to take my glasses (I didn’t), but I don’t even remember wheeling down the\u00a0 hallway.<\/p>\n

Tech Talk<\/h3>\n

Here is Dr Cicek’s email to Janet, forwarded by Janet to Martha, and by Martha to me:<\/p>\n

I performed mitral valve repair (sliding annuloplasty, quadrangular resection, chordal transfer and insertion of Duran annuloplasty ring), CABG (LIMA to LAD), and\u00a0 RF ablation for A Fib. Operation went well and he came off pump easily with a competent mitral valve (no residual regurgitation, no stenosis) and normal sinus rhythm. He is in the CTICU now, wake-up will be extubated tomorrow am.<\/strong><\/p>\n