It was the week before Thanksgiving..So I was minding my own business and bent over to pick up a gallon of milk at Kroger's. As I grabbed it, I felt a "pop" and began experiencing a dull ache in my chest. No pain down the arm or up the neck, and no nausea. Nevertheless, when I got home we decided to call 911.
The rescue squad checked my blood pressure and an ekg, and determined that whatever it was, it wasn't a heart attack. So they drove without lights or siren to St. Vincent's. Once in the ER, things went smoothly until they took a CAT scan. Then it got very busy.
Turns out I had a dissection of the ascending and descending aorta and a tear in the aorta valve. The surgeon came in and briskly told us this called for immediate surgery, and there was a 25% chance I wouldn't survive the procedure., He added that this figure increased by 10% for each hour that passed.
A seven hour surgery followed. It went well and he repaired two aneurysms while he was in there. My recovery was smooth for the first week, and I was scheduled to go home in another 3 or 4 days.
I developed respiratory failure and spent another 2 weeks at St. V before being transferred to Seton Hospital. I spent the next several weeks on a ventilator, drugged into a stupor. In the middle of February I was released to go to the Rehab Hospital. I was weak as a kitten from spending 3 months in bed.
I don';t remember more than 20 minutes from Thanksgiving to February. My wife assures me that that is for the best. But it was only in reading the papers last week that I learned of IU's performance in Maui and at Duke.
Anyway, I'm home now and walking with a walker.
If you've read this far, here's a reward:
The rescue squad checked my blood pressure and an ekg, and determined that whatever it was, it wasn't a heart attack. So they drove without lights or siren to St. Vincent's. Once in the ER, things went smoothly until they took a CAT scan. Then it got very busy.
Turns out I had a dissection of the ascending and descending aorta and a tear in the aorta valve. The surgeon came in and briskly told us this called for immediate surgery, and there was a 25% chance I wouldn't survive the procedure., He added that this figure increased by 10% for each hour that passed.
A seven hour surgery followed. It went well and he repaired two aneurysms while he was in there. My recovery was smooth for the first week, and I was scheduled to go home in another 3 or 4 days.
I developed respiratory failure and spent another 2 weeks at St. V before being transferred to Seton Hospital. I spent the next several weeks on a ventilator, drugged into a stupor. In the middle of February I was released to go to the Rehab Hospital. I was weak as a kitten from spending 3 months in bed.
I don';t remember more than 20 minutes from Thanksgiving to February. My wife assures me that that is for the best. But it was only in reading the papers last week that I learned of IU's performance in Maui and at Duke.
Anyway, I'm home now and walking with a walker.
If you've read this far, here's a reward:
