Entry three: Bypass Surgery

I'm home. I was discharged as expected on Saturday morning, March 9th. My room was a flutter of activity. Doctors and nurses were coming to and fro checking up on me, bringing me discharge papers. They even made me sit through a short DVD film footage of home care, and what to expect.

I'll detail all my experiences in the next few days. I'd like to start from D-Day - Day of Surgery, through my experiences in ICU, the step-down unit, and finally, coming home. My mind is still a little fuzzy as to details. I'm still not too sharp on what happened. I'm hoping that as I recover these next few days I'll be able to remember some more.

I'm having to relearn every little thing: from walking, getting dressed, getting in and out of bed - even taking a shower. All the little things we take for granted are a daily struggle - from which I'm usually winded, having felt like I've just worked out or run a mile. I keep telling myself that what I went through was not your simple orthopedic procedure of repairing tendons or muscles, or mending broken bone. What I went through was one of the major surgical procedures ever done to a human being: open heart surgery. I need to allow myself time to heal. A tough thing to do in this frenzied world we live in. I'm hoping also that in some way, this journal will help other patients about to undergo a similar procedure find hope and comfort in knowing that this is all normal and to be expected. The healing process takes time.