the Walnut Diary

It’s been almost a month since the operation where Dr. Bisleri at Kingston General Hospital bypassed two arteries and replaced an aortic valve, so I guess it is time to see if my mind still works well enough to write a blog entry.

I’ll pick at the edges of the fog of anaesthesia and intensive care and further hospital time devoted to balancing hemoglobin and so on, the time when I became convinced that someone had made me a test subject without a will and planned to keep me forever incarcerated in a room in KGH.

But then they let me go home, and better still, my local GP let me quit the diuretics which were wrecking my sleep, and things improved.  For the last two weeks it’s been a boring regimen of careful eating and moderate walking — the only exercise I am allowed, as I must protect the severed muscles of my chest.  Bet has proven an effective and uncomplaining nurse and treatment manager, chef, dog handler, chauffeur and gardener.

With the return of sleep have come improvements to my mental acuity to where pulp fiction again appeals, and I have availed myself of the good Internet service on Young’s Hill for state-of-the-art TV, as well.

So things are looking up, notwithstanding the heat wave this week.  Travel by car requires a large pillow between my chest and the seat belt, and so far has been restricted to medical appointments.  Coughs are a pain, sneezes are sudden and excruciating, but generally my days are pain-free.  The most obvious injury on my body is the area on my left thigh where the team harvested the veins for the bypass.  It bruised badly, occasioning a couple of weeks of kill-or-cure diuretic therapy with the lamented side-effects above.

Anyway, the refurbished heart seems to work very well.  Hills and stairs which left me gasping before are pretty easy to climb now, by comparison.  At times parts of my left leg feel tender, but walking is unimpeded.  Because I can’t lift anything or squeeze my fingers together, my fingertips feel numb.  A few hours of seat time on a machine will likely take care of that, but not for another six weeks or so.