Saturday, September 30, 2006

Glitch in Ticker Fixed

It's hard to exaggerate the difference between today--almost exactly a week after the 'procedure' and my recollection of the last couple of years, if I were to think about it.

Docs said about 98% blockage of one artery--I forgot to ask which. because they entered through the femoral, I guess I figgered it was probably that one. I have an appointment w/cardiologist mon. I'll ask him, specifically.

He was a mite surprised when I located one locus of the discomfort I experienced 'above the wrist, suspended between the radius and the ulna'...asked if I had been to medical school.

It never was 'pain', like taking the tip of your thumb off when you mis-hit a 16 lb sinker with a 28 oz waffle-head framing hammer: THAT's pain...it was discomfort, a deep ache in the chest and arms...

I ignored/denied it for six maybe even seven months. I'm a quick study, but a slow learner. It finally impressed itself upon me how serious it was when I noticed myself having to take small, almost shuffling, steps...I wasn't breathing hard...but I had to slow my pace, shorten my gait.

Marked well: That short step and slow gait are the signs the hyenas seek and see when they are hunting prey. My abiding fear is that I might end up like my dad, so weakened that he needed my care to do even the slightest, smallest tasks. Okay for him, but i don't have a 'me.'

So anyway, i'm good again. My strength is coming back. I have always been proud of my strength, and i noticed it's slackening, and i now feel it returning and i feel terrific...

thanks for askin...

jpk

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm happy for you. A stent sure as hell beats a heart attack. Bet your feet will feel warmer this winter.

9toed nihilist

Anonymous said...

Woody,

Following a stent insertion the surgeon should provide you with a diagram of the heart and the surrounding major blood vessels. That diagram should show into what artery(ies) the stent(s) was/were inserted. Considering that my dad has had about four or five separate stent procedures, he has accumulated quite a lovely portfolio of drawings of the heart and stent-fortified arteries.

As J.M. Keynes once quipped, "In the end we are all dead." That said, we would all like to postpone that outcome for as long as possible. Don't forget to eat your vegetables. (Oh, Christ, now I sound like my dear, departed mother.)

Ciao,

Metro99

Eli said...

Huzzah! Congrats, Woody!