The Ministry of Happiness

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. ~ Jawaharlal Nehru

Rev Kane’s Wild Ride: The Beginning

So as I’ve been talking about for a time on the blog, I’m scheduled for open heart surgery soon. So far I’ve been going through all of the preliminaries. This has included several rounds of blood tests, a CT scan, echocardiagram, carotid artery ultrasound, and one round of blood tests to go. A chest x-ray, EKG, meetings with various nurse practitioners, anesthesiologists and most recently this past Friday a heart catheterization procedure. This one was really fascinating and frustrating for me. The fascination was that I could see the x-ray monitor as they tracked the wire that went through an artery in my wrist up through my shoulder, around and into my actual heart. I could see the dye being injected to check how clear my arteries were, really amazing technology. It was frustrating because it meant coming off several of my medications, not eating for fourteen hours that day and spending lots of time laying around in a hospital bed just waiting to recover. I should probably get used to that idea.

The one issue that could put a wrinkle into all of this is my blood sugar levels. They were way to high a month ago but with new meds and a militant focus on my diet, they’ve come down significantly. I get tested one more time this week and then by next Monday I’ll know if I’m a go for surgery or if it will be pushed back until my numbers are better. After my procedure on Friday they finally fed me, and I don’t normally eat bread, so a chicken sandwich was actually a bit of a treat, almost as much as the pudding they gave me, I even had a couple of crackers for the bowl of flavorless soup they gave me.

After my procedure I went back to my hotel and watched the Tennessee Vols beat up on UK in the NCAA tournament which was really satisfying. I then decided to go a bit old school for my post procedure dinner. I went down to Tommy’s Joynt an old school San Francisco stand by for a regular meat plate. Basically a lovely dish of roast beef, mash potatoes and gravy, a sourdough role, salad and of course a helping of their free dill pickles. It was really delicious and I relished in breaking down that role and using it to scoop up gravy and the remnants of the mash potatoes, for someone who has pretty much been carbless for two months it was truly a glorious meal.

Of course I had also been given sedation drugs for half a day so I was pretty dragged out. Add in a totally twisted eating schedule and the stress of the day and I was pretty wiped out. But it was a successful preliminary to my adventure as they detected no arterial issues that would add to my surgical procedure that already will be quite complicated and long.

So what is the center piece of my wild ride? Well it will be three surgeries all wrapped up in one and I’ve linked out to each of them if you are interested in the technical details. So I will be having:

An aortic valve replacement surgery;

An ascending aortic aneurysm surgery;

and

An aortic root aneurysm surgery.

From what I’ve gathered so far, this surgery is going to take about 6 hours, I’m guessing they’ll stop my heart for about four hours, then jump start it back into action after the arteries and valve are sewn up. A thought that is absolutely terrifying if I’m being honest. Also, I think technically after this I qualify as a Zombie.

So my next blood tests are this Thursday, I have three medical appointment meetings on Monday attached to the surgery and I should know by next Monday if I’m cleared for surgery.

I know we all complain about our healthcare and I have Kaiser, an HMO. I know a lot of people who really dislike Kaiser but I’ve never had an issue with them. I have a really fantastic primary physician, Dr. Jones, no she’s not an archaeologist. She’s super smart, empathetic and does a great job of getting to know her patients, listening and working with you for solutions. For my catheterization I had Dr. Mastali and he was magnificent. First off, he just looked cool and was easy going and laid back, one of the nurses told me that if she was having the procedure, he’s the one she would want. He was super efficient and very kind. My nurses were all really friendly, competent and nice all in all I’ve been very happy.

Finally my surgeon and his office have been amazing. And my surgeon from all reports and everything I have read, as well as from a cardiac nurse at Kaiser, I’ve been told he’s great and that’s the sense that I have as well. So, terrifying no doubt, but I have confidence in who is doing the procedure.

So this is just the beginning of the road, I’ll keep you updated as I can and apologize if this is a bit of singular focus of the blog for a while, but this really is my whole world at the moment and I hope you’ll forgive me. The recovery process for the surgery, assuming all goes well, a week or so in the hospital then six to eight weeks for the majority of the healing, mostly the healing of the breast bone then three months before I’ll return to work and another three months to get back to full strength. So Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday will be when I’ll mark my full recovery from the surgery, and I’m planning this Thanksgiving to be a big celebration as a result and I’ll have twelve weeks of laying around recovering to make plans.

Be well and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane