It’s on! I’m up at 6am for one last shower with the special cardiac soap to lighten the germ load then a “special” shave and under a nice warm blanket for a zip down to the 2nd floor surgical suites.
We’re into the pre-op holding area where I meet several members of my surgical team. Lots of questions and discussion confirming why we’re all here. Before I know it, I’m being wheeled into the OR!
This is where time and events start to blur. It’s a long 5-6 hour surgery during much of it I’m unconscious.
Once I’m in the OR I get introduced to the team, about 12 people. They are all wonderful and very reassuring. The head nurse seems to be running the overall show until the surgeon Dr Raabe arrived and takes over. His first job, among many things, is to run the checklist, BTW the Manifesto book is a good read and the manifesto is a Doctor invention that has saved a lot of lives in the OR.
Next up is the anesthesiologist, there are two of them. The Senior Dude is guiding the apprentice to put a central line on my right wrist. Just a little freezing, and ouch! It’s in and he’s fastening it down. Then the head guy puts the gas mask on me. “It’s just oxygen” and then it’s not and I’m in la-la-land for the duration. Next he puts in another line in my neck and again it is sutured into place to keep it from moving.
Speaking of the OR, one of the first thing that goes on to me is two thin pieces of very cold plastic about the size of my palm, one in the small of my back and the other is on the side of my rib cage. These are defibrillator paddles, just in case. Shocking!
Serious stuff happens here and I‘m unconscious for about 5 hours. 100-120 minutes of that time my heart is stopped and I’m on the bypass machine.
I find out later that they only did a two bypass rather than the three they had planned on due to the fact that there was too much scar tissue from previous radiation treatments for the lymphoma.
I wake up in the ICU recovery room and I open my eyes to see Shirley 😍
There are a few tears of relief and thankfulness for both of us and I try to say something but can’t as I still have the breathing tube in.
Reader warning! My editor has not reviewed the next couple of blog posts as I work to catchup on my journey. There are likely to be typos, spelling mistakes etc. which will get fixed but if you’re reading this for the first time in an email, reader beware 🙂.