Bypass Surgery

Hello again! It's been quite a while since my last post and quite a lot (A LOT!!) has happened. A few jobs, new adventures, new dogs, loss of old friends. We'll get to that later. I wanted to talk about my upcoming cardiac bypass surgery, more commonly referred to in the thoracic community as Coronary Arterial Bypass with Grafting (CABG, or "Cabbage").

Sometime in March, 2011, I suffered a heart attack. At the time time I did not even think of it as a heart attack, it just never entered my mind. I digress…

In the middle of the night, already in bed, our dogs wanted out, so they woke me up. No big deal. They do that on occasion. I got out of bed. As soon as my feet hit the floor I felt dizzy and nauseated, and fell to the floor. I couldn't get up, could not move. While laying motionless on the floor I noticed breaking out in a cold sweat and my chest hurt a lot. It felt like someone was standing on it. The only thought in my mind was "what's happening to me?" After a few minutes I was able to get up, but staggered as I walked, and was able to let the dogs out.

The next day, while in bed, I felt the same thing. That probably should have been my queue to call 911 and get to a hospital, but I didn't.

Fast forward to the present: after seeing a General Practitioner and after describing to her the chest pains I've been experiencing, she recommended I take a stress test. I did. A cardiologist was monitoring my readings and noticed abnormalities. They rushed me to the cardiac unit and performed a catheterization procedure. That's where they stick a needle in one of your arteries (usually in the groin area) and inject a dye so that they can follow the blood flow to the heart. Sure enough, they saw compressed arteries everywhere. The cardiologist explained to me that as I performed any physical exertion, blood is pumped to the heart. Since my arteries were blocked, I wasn't getting enough blood - hence the chest pains.

To make this long story short (I'll detail it more in the next few days as I'll have a lot of time on my hands), I'm having surgery on Monday, March 4th, 2013. They'll be performing open heart surgery, or, more formally: "Coronary Artery Bypass Graft with Endovascular Vein Harvest." The medical team will take a vein from one of my legs and use that to suture, or graft, new paths to my heart to bypass the diseased ones, hence the "bypass." Like a detour in a construction zone. They'll make an incision on my chest, crack open my sternum, put me on a heart/lung machine and then they'll stop my heart while they do the procedure.

I've been busy the last few days reading up on the procedure and recovery as well as what the medical team has informed me: 3-7 days hospital stay after surgery (the day of surgery does not count), followed by 6-8 weeks of recovery. This is where our next chapter begins. I'm hoping to have many entries to this tale. Granted, this is a routine procedure done hundreds of thousands of times. However, I'm frightened at the prospect of having my heart stopped. I've been dwelling on it for days but figured I should just let it go and get on with it. I am optimistic for an improved heart and breathing capacity. Hopeful that I can continue running 5k races (with ease), do my workouts without feeling drained and winded, go on biking treks with my wife. As Don Quixote de La Mancha, I plan on many more adventures and misadventures.

I've looked over my past entries and realized I haven't followed up on comments I said I would in regards to tv shows and movies. No excuses this time. I have plenty to write about. And time. Follow along, won't you?

Until next time.