Saturday July 4th. Independence Day!

This morning they take out the central cannula line into my carotid artery.  On the end of this is a Christmas tree of options for anaesthetists but for me it is a drag that means I cannot not turn my neck.  They also removed the catheter which is quite convenient because it means I never have to worry about peeing, which when you have a prostate like mine is a worry, believe me!  So with all the tubes out I have a shower and no longer smell like a dirty old person (sorry if you are old and reading this but I really hate that stale smell of unwashed and reworn clothes which I am afraid permeates the atmosphere around some senior citizens travelling on public transport). 

That means it must be independence day!  It says that in my diary but how could they have known?  Amazing foresight if you ask me.Apparently things were quite a lot worse when he go in there so he did a quadruple bypass, which is why I have holes in both my legs whee he riped out some veins (sorry not ripped, that would not have helped.  I think the correct word is harvested).
   
Mr Shipolini comes to see me later on Wednesday afternoon to tell me the operation was a success, and that my arteries were so bad he decided he might as well do a quad by-pass.  That meant RAD (right artery descending), LAD and Left Circumflex plus the P(Posterior)Ad, which I think was a decision made once he had opened me up and had a look.  It also explains why he ripped out veins from both my legs (sorry, ripping would not do them any good, I believe the term is harvest).  If you really want to know more about the physiology I recommend you buy a good book, or look on the Internet as tat is about as much as I know at the moment.  But it does mean I will be good for another 10 - 15 years (if there was a guarantee that would be it) or more likely 25, which will do me well enough at this stage.  And he promises I will be running around as much in the future as I have in the past. 

I was of course drugged to the eyeballs after the operation so did not feel much for the next few days, which was as well because there were some loud foreign patients, and more to the point doctors and relations who spent hours shouting at each other, and at their elderly Qatari mother who was the patient, in one of the bays.  I would have expected the consultant to have shown some respect for the other patients, but I guess the visitors were not likely to be concerned in the slightest.

Last Thursday I am given a bed bath and my dressings are changed. Still on morphine so feeling nothing.  I try eating but throw up.  Later in the evening I am moved to the general ward.  I will miss Flores, my 1-to-1 ITU nurse, who was very efficient and conscientious though I had to work hard to make her smile.