Back From Door's Deathstop

I wanted to write out some of my experiences at University Hospital. I was scheduled for a valve replacement procedure on Monday the 22nd. I had had a murmur in my aortic valve for many years. Eventually the valve opening narrowed to the point where I was having symptoms. My cardiologist is Dr. Day at UofM and she consulted with Dr. Deeb also at Uof M. He said I need to have it done and if I didn't my chance of living three more years would be zero.

I felt like I had won the Lottery by having Deeb as my surgeon. He is world renowned for valve repair and replacement.


When discussing my operation after a comprehensive battery of tests. Deeb said normally the procedure has a 2% mortality rate but with my background of having a previous coronary bypass and added on top of that radiation therapy my chances were put at 12% mortality. I expected to survive the surgery and have about 10 more years on the planet as a human being. There was plenty of doubt, because, sometimes you lose.

We arrived at the Cardiovascular Center at UofM Hospital at 5:50 A.M. (20 min. late) and were checked in quickly and one of the technicians came out to walk me back to the prep area.
Many other people were being preped for their surgeries too. Kind of like a happy Buchenwald. After I was shaved, cleaned and had the proper tubes inserted in me, they brought Brooke in. We listened in to conversations and laughed hilariously at the man next to us who was being yelled at by his anesthesiologist because they had removed the old man's hearing aid. He said ,"THERE IS A RISK OF DEATH!"

It was time for me to go, so we said goodbye and they turned on the juice and my conscious memory ended at that point. I slept as things were done and finally I felt something squeezing my legs. I thought Zeke (one of our cats) must be laying down by my legs. Next: I must be in bed in Fenton. Next: I'm supposed to go in for surgery today. I opened my eyes. Next: This isn't the bedroom, it's a hospital room. Next: I made it! Hey, I feel pretty good.

I later found out that my heart started bleeding during the procedure. The valve hadn't been replaced. So the plan now is to heal up, go back with a different game plan in about two months. Hopefully I'll wake up again in the ICU, back from deaths door-step. I left some errors in here because I took a pain pill and it makes it harder to type and I thought the errors would indicate my state of mind. Nice to be back with you all again.