One More Day

Tomorrow morning will be IT - open heart surgery to replace an aortic valve and double/triple bypass.

I have been assured that I will "go to sleep" and "wake up" after its all done with no memory of the surgery. Might be better to have no memory of what happens, and not know what the surgeons actually say about the patient.

Had blood (four vials) and urine tested, chest x-rays (back and side), filled out paperwork for admission - just need to sign in at 5:15A.M. tomorrow morning.

I will be made to sleep at 7:00A.M., and should be done by 1:00P.M. or 1:30P.M. Then I will be drifting in and out of consciousness the rest of the day and fully awake Wednesday.

Probably will be in Intensive Care for one or two days, followed by intermediate care for five to eight days, and then home for three to six weeks of recovery.

Talked with the anesthesiologist who answered questions.

Daughter Diana will send out an email after I come out of surgery.

Two More Days

In two days I will have heart surgery for aortic valve replacement and double/triple bypass.

While I have no problems with dying (everybody dies, see "Memento Mori") what has me concerned is the uncertainty involved - statistically this procedure has 85% survival rate.

That is, if I were to have this procedure done 100 times I would die 15 times "on average".

(This means statistically if an increasingly large number of batches of 100 procedures were to be done, the average number of times of dying in 100 procedures would converge to 15 as the number of batches gets larger.)

On the other hand, there's the certainty of being dead in two years if I do not have the procedure done - it's a no-brainer as far as making the decision to have or not-have the surgery.

After surviving and recovering from surgery I plan on having my ear pierced as a symbol of surviving a life-threatening situation..

(This comes from the sailor's tradition of ear-piercing if he were to survive a shipwreck, along with other things such as crossing the equator for the first time, or to ensure a Christian burial if his body washes ashore after a shipwreck.)

Instead of black pearl, I had made an earring with a two carat canary-yellow simulated diamond in a bevel setting (sits lower on the ear lobe), and will probably go to Old Towne Pasadena to a tattoo and body piercing shop that I found on Yelp for the ear piercing.

Diana will have her ears pierced. We will do this in May when she comes back from school.

Sent from my Peek

edited 3:34PM Sunday, January 24, 2010

Got a Date with the Surgeon

Pat from Cardiac Surgery called.

My date for surgery is January 26, and I get to check-in on the 25th.

This will be done at Kaiser Hospital on Sunset Blvd.

As Good as It's Going to Get

"As good as it's going to get."

That's what the kidney doctor basically said - my test results (ELEVEN vials of blood were taken out of my arm on Tuesday!) showed that the numbers that they were looking to go up - hemoglobin and protein levelss - have gone up and are in their respective "normal" range.

Many of the other numbers are within the desired range for dialysis patient.

There were some adjustments to meds to handle the numbers that were not within normal range. A couple of new prescriptions were written and picked up at the pharmacy.

It's a "GO" for heart surgery. We will call the cardiology group on Monday to get things going.

I now understand that we want to have my heart surgery preferably before the end of January before Diana goes back to school so that she can see me come out of surgery successfully.

Happy New Year!

This is the beginning of a new year.

The only resolution I made this year is to survive the year in relatively good health.

We all hope for the best (at least better than last year). However, we need to prepare for the worse (my new email signature includes the quotation from Sun Tzu , "To rely on rustics and not prepare is the greatest of crimes; to be prepared beforehand for any contingency is the greatest of virtues.")

What normally happens though, is that things comes out somewhere in between the two extremes - thus by preparing for the worst and hoping for the best we are both delighted and disappointed. This is OK.

I have these things to look forward to this year:

1) Continued improvement to my health, including increase in hemoglobin count, and protein levels, and continued good results with dialysis.

2) Elizabeth's Birthday Party later this month, and Diana leaving to go back to school after a nice visit home.

3) Given my improved health, we are planning to have to have heart surgery after Elizabeth's birthday and Diana's departure, and not before.

4) Survive this surgery without dying.

5) Given my surviving this surgery (remove and replace aortic valve with pig valve, handle two partially blocked arteries), recover from the heart surgery which take a nominal three to six weeks.

4) Rehabilitation and regaining some semblance of a "normal" life in relatively good health.

These things might not seem like much to the ordinary person, but are a big deal to me.


Disclaimer: SORRY - This is only what I know from my point of view. No lies, just what I see as the truth.

December 30, 2009 Health Update

The plan is for my surgery to be done in the latter part of January, after Elizabeth's birthday party, and after Diana's going back to school.

By then, the doctors expect my hemoglobin count to be at or above "normal" (it was slightly below normal when last tested), and my protein level (measured as blood albumin) to be "normal". My procrit (hormone that tells my bone marrow to make hemoglobin) dosage was increased from 4500 units twice a week to 5500 units twice a week, and I am continuing the protein supplement (30 grams of protein = 5 scoops of Beneprotein in a fruit smoothie) every night.

The surgery is to remove and replace the aortic valve in my heart with a pig valve. While they have my chest open and heart stopped, they will also handle a couple of partially blocked arteries while they are in there (kind of like your mechanic doing the main bearings on your car engine at the same time as the valve job since the engine is torn down anyways).

Because of the difficulty of opening up and working with a beating heart, the surgical team will necessarily stop my heart in order to do the work on it. This will be done through the miracle of Cardiopulmonary Bypass (CPB).

NOTICE that I did not write that the surgical team will kill me dead. They are only going to make my heart stop beating and me stop breathing.

The question, then, is this: since I am not breathing and have no beating heart, will I be "dead"?

I had this discussion with several people - will I remember being "dead"? At our family Christmas Eve dinner I told my niece, Noreen, that when I am "dead" that I would communicate with her. We agreed that I would cause one of her books ("The Lovely Bones") to fall out of her book shelf.


Disclaimer: SORRY - This is only what I know from my point of view. No lies, just what I see as the truth.