One Year After Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

One year ago today I was waking up from CABG surgery. It has been an amazing and challenging journey back to health. I am still not where I would like to be but compared to where I was just one year ago well, it is almost unbelievable.

For those of you about to undergo bypass surgery and for those of you at various places in your recovery, take heart and forgive my terrible pun. You will get through this and come out the other side better.

The things I did right:

• My family got involved in my recovery. I wouldn't have tried so hard without their support.
• I took advantage of every educational and physical rehabilitation program that was offered to me.

The things I should have done:

• I should have kept in touch with the fellows who were in the hospital ward with me having the same procedure.
• I should have kept in touch with the people I went through Cardiac Rehabilitation with. It is easy to become isolated while working your way back. I think being able to meet up with folks going through the same thing would be really positive and encouraging.

Well, that's it. I just wanted to mark the anniversary of my heart surgery and wish to all health and growth in the New Year.

More Puppy Pandemonium and Starting a Running Program

Pandemonium, that is the right word for what is going on in my house right now. We have brought another pup into our home.
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This fellow is a Springer Spaniel named Schalke, after my daughter's favourite footie team.




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The little pup Shorty, our Maltese is fun to walk although in truth it is really more of a carry with frequent stops to chat with other pedestrians who are captivated by his cuteness. No kidding, it almost like a super power with this dog. The power of cuteness.

Walking Schalke on the other hand is already an athletic event. Thankfully he doesn't have much stamina yet.
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I was speaking with a friend of mine recently who is a marathon runner. He gave me some information on adding running to my daily walks to enhance my cardio-fitness.
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The idea is to walk for five minutes and then run for a minute, walk for another five minutes, run for a minute and so on. Gradually you will build your stamina and muscles by increasing the minutes of running until you can do the distance running you have set as your goal.
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Walking the Springer Spaniel puppy is like that anyway although I suspect his stamina will increase at a much faster rate than mine but I am going to give it a try.
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The cautions for those of us recovering from heart surgery are of course to be careful not to over-do it. If you can't talk and do what you are doing, you are over doing it! I find that simple rule is much easier to apply out on the street than monitoring my pulse.
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I remember a discussion during my cardiac rehabilitation that mentioned that those people with dogs appeared to do better at maintaining their fitness goals over the long term. I can see why.
Puppies lift your spirits. They need to be played with and walked. It is hard to be too much of a couch potato in a house with two puppies.
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Steps today: 10,164

Mummies Had Heart Disease Too

I just read an article about forensic studies done on some mummies that are over 3500 years old. Turns out that heart disease was a problem then too. As the article says, "You can't blame this one on McDonald's".

In an era when the average life span was around fifty these mummies, thought to be in their mid-forties, showed definite signs of atherosclerosis. One even had evidence of a heart attack.

Most of us think our modern life style is responsible for our health problems but it turns out that fast food, couch potato living and smoking are not the only things that cause heart disease. Some of us are just going to get it. What we do then is probably what dictates our quality of life from then on.

Anyway here is a link to the article. It is an interesting read.

Steps today:10,432

Man Set on Fire During Heart Surgery

Here is the headline from a malpractice lawyer's blog: "Man Set on Fire During Heart Surgery Sues Doctor!"

The story is not as good as the headline but the blog itself is quite interesting.

Another interesting story recently making the rounds is this one about a doctor who is using a type of Crazy Glue called Kryptonite, to hold the breastbone together after open heart surgery.

As most of us know who read this blog, having your chest held together with wires and waiting for it to heal is the worst part of the whole heart surgery in most cases.

This new method heals the breastbone in days rather than weeks and you can get back to normal activities in weeks rather than months.

Read the whole story here:

Using glue to mend breastbone after open heart surgery.

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day is always a time for sober reflection as we remember and give thanks for those who sacrificed and continue to sacrifice so much for our way of life.

I walked to the ceremony this morning and was struck by how many people there were there. Thousands of people from all ages and walks of life crowded the park around the cenotaph.

It was a touching ceremony and I was grateful to be there.

Steps today: 8987

I Might Need to Join a Gym

October has passed and the temperature is dropping fast. That is not so bad for walking except that the time has changed to daylight savings time. It is already dark when I get home from work still needing six or seven thousand steps to meet my goal of ten thousand steps a day.

It is cold, uninviting, and not very pleasant to walk in the dark..

The question is, Does it make sense to spend the money on joining a gym or would I be wiser to invest in a good treadmill for home?
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I don't know which is more practical. more importantly, I don't know which option will keep me motivated and exercising to the level I need to maintain my rapidly improving health.

If you have any ideas please let me know what you think. Your experience and advice will be most welcome.

On a positive note, I took a few days off to go salmon fishing last week . That is a fairly rugged proposition in late October in Nova Scotia. It was great though, I felt good and was comfortable with the demands of a couple of days on the river.

It was great encouragement to keep eating well, taking my meds and exercising. I was happily able to do something I thought was lost to me forever since my heart problems and subsequent bypass surgery.

On December 22nd it will be one year since my heart surgery. I need to think of something special to mark the occasion. Any suggestions?

Steps today: 7980

Making Even One Positive Lifestyle Change Lowers Your Risk

Here is the latest photo of Shorty. He is doing well. He ate the Dandelion flower then continued on his walk. Well, not so much a walk as a carry but I'm still getting my steps in, just not as quickly as before. A walk with this puppy also involves a lot of pauses for chatting as people stop to admire him.


I found out today that the Maltese breed is over 28 centuries old. Talk about tried and true!



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There was an article recently in the Globe and Mail, life section. It listed at least eight lifestyle changes to help you avoid heart disease. In our case, to help prevent the recurrence of blockages and other symptoms after Heart Surgery.



The thrust of the article was that there are a lot of recommendations from your doctor and other health care team members of things you should do for your health, even if you only do one good thing it will have a positive effect.

We all know by now that we should:

• Quit Smoking
• Moderate Alcohol
• Get Daily Exercise
• Reduce Salt
• Eat more Whole Grains
• Control Our Weight

And on and on goes the list.

Here is the thing though, you don't have to do it all in a gulp. Just do something. Maybe try starting with one thing and include the others as you go along. Building on your successes slowly and surely until you find the balance that works for you.

As a fellow in my ninth month of recovery after Open Heart Surgery for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts, right now I feel like I will do whatever it takes to avoid having to go through this (or perhaps even worse) again. Knowing myself though, I suspect as I feel better and better my resolve to do all of the things on the list may weaken.

Which brings me back to the point. Doing something, even if it is only one thing on the list, is better than doing nothing.

Steps today: 10987

Get Shorty! Get Moving!

Look at this little beauty. This is Shorty the newest member of our family.

he has been with us now for three days. I have never been a big fan of small dogs but this guy is hard to resist.

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There seems to be a link between successful recovery from bypass graft surgery or other heart operations and sharing your home with pets.

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If you think about it, it does look to be likely. It is certainly hard to be stressed while stroking a cat or playing with a puppy. Reducing stress is one of the key lifestyle changes recommended to diminish the risk of heart disease.

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Having a dog will also get you out of the chair or up off of the couch pretty regularly as they need to pee or go for walks. Your dog may be sympathetic to the fact that you are feeling pretty crummy but when he's got to go, he's got to go.

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Once you are on your feet a dog is a great walking companion. They are definitely an important member of the Zipper Club Support Team .

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Shorty is technically my wife's dog but I had no idea just how darn cute a Maltese puppy can be. Our Field Spaniel pup arrives in mid-December so I have a feeling that our house is going to be so full of puppy cuteness for the next few months that I'm going to have to work at being my grumpy old self or no one will recognize me.

Recovery is a Family Affair

Waking up after open heart surgery is a stunning experience. There are all of the physical sensations but there is also a moment, somewhat delayed by the overwhelming immediacy of the physical stuff, when the impact of the event strikes home. "I'm alive. I've made it. Now what?"

It is the "Now What?" that has been my preoccupation for the last eight months and will likely be on my mind for the foreseeable future.

Part of the recovery is the physical rehabilitation. An even larger part is the educational process. In my case, I had to complete a number of classes about living with heart problems, heart healthy life styles and general knowledge about the pharmaceuticals used in treating heart diseases before even being admitted to the physical rehabilitation centre.

The Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Health in Motion Program involved two sessions a week doing exercises under the supervision of a nurse, a physio-therapist and a dietitian as well as one class room session a week.

The classes were spread out over the first eight weeks of the program and covered topics like:

• Risk Factors for Heart Disease and Stages of Change
• Exercise and Goal Setting
• Dietary Risk Factors
• Basics of Heart Healthy Eating
• Super Heart Healthy Foods and Foods to Avoid
• Label Reading
• Eating out and Meal Planning
• Coping with Heart Disease

The smartest thing I did was to take my daughter Nancy with me to the first round of classes. I encourage you to do the same. Take a family member with you to as many classes as they can attend.

There are two reasons for this. First, I was still quite dopey for the first couple so a lot of the information didn't stick. The second reason is that a lot of the life style changes, the mood swings and depression that are the after-effects of open heart surgery require not just co-operation from your family but their active support and understanding.

Even though you are the one feeling the physical pain, your whole family feels the repercussions of your operation.

Steps today: 10,287

Some Practical Advice For Those About to Undergo Open Heart Surgery

So here is some practical advice for those of you getting ready to enter the hospital for heart surgery. In the week before going into the hospital take a few minutes to have a hair cut. I know, not very high on your priorities but once you go into the hospital you can pretty well count on being laid up for a few weeks at least. The simple things like showering and ordinary grooming will be tough until your incisions heal and you won't be able to drive for six weeks or so. Anyway, I didn't get a haircut and wished I had. I was pretty shaggy by the time I was able to drive myself to the barber shop.

What to take to the hospital?

For clothing I took a week's worth of boxer shorts,two pairs of cotton pajamas, a house coat and a pair slippers. The pajamas should be a little larger than you might normally wear so that they don't bind and rub against your incisions.

I wish I had thought to get those slippers with no backs that you just step into instead of the shoe style ones. The first time I tried to get out of bed for a walk, putting on the slippers was an ordeal. Trust me on this, get the ones with open backs that you can slip on without bending down.

In my wash bag I took a hair brush, a razor, shaving cream, floss, tooth paste and a toothbrush.

Having spent some time in salmon fishing camps with other middle aged men, I also brought some ear plugs. I'm not sure if there is any such thing as a private room when in Cardiac ICU or a Cardiac Recovery Ward. I was in a room with five other people, all of us within a few days of a heart attack or some other major event leading to open heart surgery. It was noisy and active 24 hours a day.

Things I wished I had brought: a Walkman type music player with headphones and a radio. I think a couple of "talking books" would have helped to pass the time more pleasantly. I found it uncomfortable to hold a book and the drugs made it hard to focus anyway. Some hard candies to keep my mouth moist would have been nice too.

There are many other more important things you have to think about as you are about to undergo this life changing event but I hope this helps a little.

Why 10,000 Steps?

Here is a funny thing, everyone seems to agree that a walking plan of 10,000 steps a day has health benefits including weight loss and improvements in general fitness. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a lot of science to support the idea.

Now, that is not so bad. It is not like anyone is trying to pull a fast one here. It is more like someone suggested that number as a good, achievable target and everyone agreed.

The first person to suggest it here in North America seems to have been Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke who described a Japanese health and weight loss system in a book about step counting.

It does make sense. Most normally active people can achieve the 10,000 step goal by supplementing their regular daily activities with a nice long walk in the evening. Of course, people who do that are also normally healthy as a rule so as I said, it does make sense.

How far is 10,000 steps? 10,000 steps is between 8 and 10 kilometers or between 5 and 6 miles roughly. Again, that is the amount of activity recommended by most health professionals for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle.

For those of us recovering from open heart surgery walking is the best sort of activity for aiding us in getting back to normal or better.

When I graduated from Cardiac Rehabilitation the physio there set my steps-a-day target at 10,000. So even though the science is still being done to prove the benefits everyone seems to agree 10,000 steps is the right target.

The first thing I did when I was well enough to start seriously trying for 10,000 steps a day was to first borrow and then buy a pedometer. These little gizmos generally clip onto the waist band of your pants and count your steps. Some are pretty fancy and have built in radios, clocks, distance measurement and so on but the most useful one I've found is a simple clip-on model from Wal Mart that cost around $12 bucks and does nothing but count your steps.

Make sure you attach a string or a lanyard to your pedometer that then loops around your belt loop or belt. Pedometers are easy to lose when getting into or out of your car, going to the bathroom, or even just fishing in your pocket for change. The clip they come with will keep it level on your waist so that it records accurately but without the lanyard, it is easy to lose.

I put mine on first thing in the morning and wear it until I go to bed at night. The pedometer is like a little motivational coach encouraging me to go another few steps and bring that total up.

It is the best $12 bucks I've ever spent

Steps today: 9,875

Major Leaguer Returns from Heart Surgery

I read today about a Major League ball player, Aaron Boone, who had open heart surgery in March and is returning to play his first game in the Majors this Wednesday.

My hat is off to him.What sheer guts and determination. He was not just getting well enough to function in normal life. He was getting well enough to function as an elite athlete.

Awesome eh? I guess there is hope for we mere mortals as well. What an inspiring story.

On a sadder note, my old cat, Marius has been pretty sick. We took him to the Vet today and his heart and kidneys are failing. The Vet said we should just take him home and make his final days as comfortable as we can. We will know when it is time to bring him back to the clinic.

Although it is his heart that is causing problems, cats almost never have heart attacks. It is more often something else that will bring about the end.

Poor old Marius. What a great cat he has been. I'm sad but philosophical. He is somewhere between 14 and 16 years old, having come to us as a full grown cat. That was more than twelve years ago.

Steps today: 8,987

Follow Your Exercise Program

The struggle for recovery from open heart surgery begins the day you get home from the hospital.

The currency of improvement is pain. Not in the " no pain, no gain" sense. It is just that everything you do hurts. It hurts to breathe. It hurts to move. God help you if you have to sneeze or cough. Everything you do hurts.

That is just the way it is. As time goes by things get easier, especially if you follow the exercise program laid out for you by your physiotherapist or doctor.

Within a month after surgery I was walking everyday and starting to take an interest in things outside of my own little sphere of misery.

Looking back from a few months down the road to recovery I realize that there are a few key areas that need to be balanced in order to find your feet and stride confidently forward into your new life.

The first is mental. Your attitude will dictate your reality. For example there is a huge difference in seeing yourself as "suffering from heart disease" versus "recovering from surgery to repair your blocked arteries".

See what I mean? one is a positive statement. I'm better, the problem has been fixed and I'm now moving forward. The other is negative. I am a victim of disease.I am suffering. I am stuck here.

I know this sounds like mumbo jumbo but depression or the blues is a big problem for us as we come to terms with what has just happened. Open heart surgery is a life-changing event. More importantly maybe is that it is a lifestyle-changing event.

The physical challenge is easier to deal with in some ways. Yes it will hurt as you start to move around but as a man I found the problems easier to understand. I do two small walks a day and soon I will be able to take bigger walks. Simple, linear, it makes sense and doesn't take any deep thinking.

I confess, those first efforts were pretty pathetic but it is eight months since my surgery and my target now is 10,000 steps a day - every day. Some days I only manage 7,000 or so but others I can get up to 12,000 steps, give or take.

The hardest struggle has been to beat the blues. I'm still working on that one but I think time is my Allie. The better I feel physically the easier it is to feel better mentally.

Steps today: 10,576.

Zipper Club T-shirts

One of the things I notice now that I'm walking every day is that there are lots of other people out there walking too.

Unless they are carrying the little red pillow it is hard to guess whether they, like me, are recovering from heart surgery or just walking for the pleasure or other health benefits.

I thought I'd make some t-shirts to help us identify each other.

I don't know about you but some times it gets pretty lonely struggling through recovery. It would be nice to be able to talk to someone else going through the same thing.

Here is a look at what I'm working on. I'm just getting started so let me know if there is anything you would like to see or improvements to be made.


create & buy custom products at Zazzle

Once I was Home

Once I was home, I was truly an invalid for a couple of weeks.

I spent a lot of time just dozing in my La-Z-Boy chair. Everything was hard, from putting on my clothes to finding the appetite to eat, usually just soup in the first week.

Twice a week a home care nurse visited to check on my wounds and change the dressings.

The wounds and the scars they leave are distinctive.

There is a straight incision of about eight inches long down the centre of the chest, a couple of stab wounds where the tubes were inserted to drain the fluids and old blood from the chest cavity, and in my case three long gashes where the veins for the grafts were taken from my left leg.

The cuts on my leg were held closed with staples. No kidding. They looked just like something used in carpentry or craft class at school.

My first outing came ten days after surgery when I had to visit my family doctor to have those staples removed. They had given me a special tool for the purpose when I was discharged from the hospital to take with me when I visited the doctor. The removal of the staples was not pleasant. It hurt a little bit more than having stitches removed which wasn't so bad but there were just so many of them.

Just being out and about after surgery was disorienting. I had to keep the little red pillow handy to support my chest when I walked or coughed. I think it was the amount of drugs I was taking that was the biggest problem. It made me feel unbalanced like I was on a boat.

It takes six weeks for the breast bone to heal completely so for those weeks you have to be very careful. Ten pounds is the upward limit of what you should lift and activity should be concentrated on walking and mild exercise.

I tried to take short walks twice a day. The first few attempts were pretty pitiful but slowly I was able to get more distance .

At the end of the third week home I was able to walk enough to start attending the "Heart Show" education program, a three session prerequisite for the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program I was enrolled in.

So here is the chronology of events:

• Bypass Surgery on December 22nd
• Home on December 27th
• Staples out January 6th
• 1st pre-rehab class January 23rd
• Begin 12 week of Cardiac Rehabilitation program February 10th

Beginning to Recover

Once I was in the regular Cardiac Recovery Ward my main preoccupation was to try and breathe normally.

I had a little nose thingy that supplied oxygen and the nurses were constantly encouraging me to try and cough.

That hurt. I was given a red pillow to hug when I coughed or moved or in any way put stress on my broken breast bone and chest. That helped.

These red pillows are made by volunteers. Mine came from a lady in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. She has my gratitude. That little pillow helped me through the early days as I took my first post-operative steps. It must have been quite a pitiful sight as I well know from watching the others in my ward.

There we were, slightly hunched from the pain, clutching our little red pillows in a bear hug, pressing them to our chests with both arms and shuffling along, trying to get from our bed to the end of the hall and back.

The pain was bad but the mantra was, "Don't try to be a hero. Take your pain medications."

The idea is that by taking the pain medication you would be able to get up and move around a little. That is what helps you to heal but most of all, it helps to get your lungs back in operation after they were collapsed during the surgery.

I didn't like the pain medication because a whole day would pass in a haze but the nurses are right, without the pain medication you sure don't feel like getting up and walking around.

The first week was a little rough but after five days I was released to go home.

Waking up after Heart Surgery

I have a vivid memory of waking up post-op.

There was a tube in my throat and even though I was getting air from a ventilator, it feel like I was not breathing.

That was a terrible few seconds until my mind cleared and the realization of what was going on sunk in.

A nurse started speaking to me as soon as my eyes opened. She explained where I was and what was going on. She said she would remove the tube and not to worry, then began doing so.

All told, it was probably only a matter of seconds from waking up not breathing on my own to having the tube removed but it seemed timeless.

It was an indescribable feeling that was quickly replaced by a whole new set of sensations when I took my first deep breath on my own.

It wasn't really painful, I was still too drugged and dopey to feel much pain but it was unpleasant. I felt like I needed to cough but couldn't get enough volume of air into my lungs to do it.

Then I fell back asleep or into a dreamy doze. People came and went but I couldn't really focus on what was happening.

The next time the world came in to clear focus I was out of the Post-Op Intensive Care Unit. It was the day after surgery and I was in a ward with a handful of others all just starting to come around too. This was an intermediate stop before being put in a Cardiac Recovery ward.

I felt like crap to put it bluntly. My lungs felt like they were full of liquid, my chest hurt and my mind was still foggy from the anesthesia and painkillers. My only task that day was to try and cough as much as I could to clear my lungs. Easier said than done.

The unit nurse would come around every few minutes to encourage a cough and see how I was doing. I hadn't had anything to eat yet, only liquids. I felt nauseous but gamely tried to eat a cracker. That didn't work out too well and the pain as I emptied my stomach was shocking.

Throwing up seemed to mark a turning point and even though I was miserable, I started to come around. My mind was clearing. I hurt but it was bearable. The lungs were the worst because the only way to clear them was deep breaths and coughing which expanded the chest and the split sternum. That was the most painful part of the ordeal.

The next day, or maybe later that night, I was moved to the Cardiac Recovery Ward. It was a normal hospital ward with six beds and a nurse on duty day and night.

We were all in rough shape I guess. Each of us had undergone the same surgery within days of each other.

That is where the real recovery began.

The Day of Heart Bypass Surgery

Luckily we had made the decision to spend the night in a hotel just across the street from the hospital. It had stormed all night and the roads were really a mess. I got up at 4:00 AM, showered, then used the special antibiotic for one more good cleaning of my chest, groin and legs.

Truth be told, my memory is vague about what actually happened that day. I remember the quality of the light and the feel of the cold on my skin but I don't remember walking across the street to the hospital or whether we were able to drive. There are funny gaps in my memory about the whole process.

One way or the other I found myself registering in the cardiac clinic at 5:00 AM on the morning of Monday, December the 22nd. Because of my pre-admission clinic the past Friday, things should have gone smoothly but due to the weather, things were a bit confused.

They couldn't seem to find my paperwork although my name was on the surgery schedule. It was just that someone was running late and hadn't logged onto their computer yet but to me it seemed to amplify my stress.

I couldn't bear the thought of leaving and having to reschedule this whole thing. The decision was to carry on as if everything was normal and when the administrative staff got through the snow, it would all be straightened out.

They showed me to a room to change into a Johnny shirt and my things were put into a bag for my wife to look after. I didn't know which way was front or back but trust me, it isn't a very pretty sight whichever way it goes on.

When I was changed they led me to a gurney and laid me down behind a screen. Within minutes another of the cheerful young women that populate hospitals showed up to shave my chest and other areas yet again.

My wife, Laura tells a story of another person sitting in the waiting room. He was being admitted to have a spinal fusion operation. As they pulled the curtains around my gurney he leaned over and nudged his companion.

"He's having open heart surgery" he whispered. They both cringed and said "ugh!" in perfect unison.

It strikes me as funny because the thought of spinal surgery makes me cringe, even after what I've been through.

Any way, at some point I was given a sedative to relax me while I waited for things to begin. Also at some point the admitting nurse popped her head in to tell me that the pre-admission clinic had sent along my paperwork and things were all good to go.

Laura and I chatted while we waited but I was slowly fading into oblivion. An IV must have been inserted because I remember looking at the baby blue plastic collar on the needle and wondering who decided what colour they should be. The rest is gone until I woke up in Post-Op.

Laura tells me I missed a lot of comings and goings but in truth, the last lucid memory I have of that day is being shaved by the cheerful young woman who some how knew either me or my parents or something. I never did get it sorted.

What is Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery (CABG)?

I have taken the story up to the night before my surgery but thought I should stop here and review just what this whole thing is all about.

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When blood is blocked from flowing to your heart you need to do something to restore the flow or your heart can be damaged.

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One of the ways to solve the problem is to take a vein from somewhere else and use it to bypass the plugged sections of the arteries around your heart.

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I asked my doctor if the veins they take for grafting are not needed where they were. He assured me that new paths for blood flow will develop as needed where they take the grafts from.

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The surgery itself takes from three to six hours. The breast bone is divided in half and the ribs are spread open to give the surgeon access to the heart. Then you are hooked up to a heart-lung machine.

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At that point your heart is stopped! The machine does the work of your heart and lungs to circulate oxygenated blood through out your body.

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In my case they took the veins from my leg to use as grafts to bypass the clogged arteries. Once they were in there they found that only three of the plugs needed grafts, the other blockage had been bypassed naturally by a vein growing to accommodate the new demand.

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Once the grafts are in place, (after several hours of life being sustained by the heart-lung machine) your heart is restarted. When your heart is beating normally they disconnect you from the heart-lung machine and close you up.

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Your breastbone is held together with wire and your wounds are stitched and stapled.

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The distinctive scars from this surgery are what give the Zipper Club its name.

Three Days and Counting

So there I was finishing the pre-admission clinic on a Friday and told that my surgery would be this coming Monday.

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This was really it. There was a lot to do and not much time before I would be out of commission for months. The first thing I did was to call my wife.

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She advised me to stop by the office and explain to my colleagues what was happening. That was good advice. They were supportive and understanding. There was even a good joke or two along the lines of,”So, you really do have a heart then?”

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Before long, we were home and trying to absorb what was about to happen. Poor Laura, poor Nancy, my wife, my daughter and I had been through a lot in the last two months. Now we were heading into yet another stress filled and harrowing experience.

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The next day, Saturday, was shopping to get everything I would need for my hospital stay and recuperation; things like pajamas, housecoat and slippers; all the accoutrements of the stylish invalid.

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Sunday was stormy. I had to be at the hospital by 5:30 AM Monday morning and the weather channel was predicting a big storm overnight. It was dark and blustery all day but started snowing around 4:30 in the afternoon. Worrying about how to get to the hospital before dawn the next morning we explored several options from booking a taxi to asking my brother to drop me off with his four wheel drive. In the end we decided to head across town before it got too bad and stay in the hotel across the street from the hospital. Come what may, I was confident I could get across the street to my appointment in the morning. Oh yeah, they even gave us a discount on our room because I was checking into the hospital the next morning.

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With our plans set, my wife and I had a nice dinner in the dinning room then settled in to watch the city filling with snow.

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At the pre-admission clinic they had given me a special antiseptic to wash my chest, groin and legs, once the night before surgery and again in the morning before checking into the hospital.

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I went to bed early, sticky from the antiseptic and slept fitfully until 4:00 the next morning.

The World is Really a Marvelous Place

My daughter and her Uncle Ron saw this young fox the other day and sent along the photo.

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I know it has nothing to do with the serious business of heart stuff but sometimes it is good to remember that even though we are having some trouble, the world is really a marvelous place.

How does Monday sound for your surgery?

I was a little sore and dragged out the day after the Heart

Catheterization. This would have been somewhere around the middle of

November.

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I can't remember the exact sequence of events but within a week my Cardiologist had called and made an appointment for me to hear the results of the test. The results: four blockages in the arteries around my heart. His recommendation was a bypass operation, as soon as possible.

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He would still have to present my case to the surgical department heads and establish what priority my situation was, in order to get an admission date.

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He phoned a few days later to tell me that they had accepted my case and would admit me at the first possible opening. This brings us to mid-December.

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On Friday, December 19th I attended a pre-admission clinic which would prepare me should an opening occur. It was an all day thing involving lots of blood tests, consultations with all of the departments that are involved with an open heart surgery and meeting the fellow who would actually be performing the surgery.

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What nice people! I don't mind admitting I was very uncomfortable and stressed at the thought of what I was about to undergo. But, everyone I met or consulted with was calm, reassuring and most of all compassionate.

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There was even a guy in the waiting room that had undergone the same operation. He was waiting for me between appointments and told me about his experience. He left me with his card so that I could call him if I had any questions before or after the surgery. That was the first time I had ever heard the term "Zipper Club".

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Back to my story, I was attending this pre-admission clinic to be ready for whenever an opening occurred. I figured it might be at least a month or more, based upon the way our health care system is portrayed on the news and in the papers.

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Well the reality is much different I can assure you. At about three o'clock that afternoon as I was waiting to speak to the anesthetist, the nurse who was coordinating my visit said to me,

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"How does Monday sound for your surgery?"

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The rest of the day went by in a blur. It was Friday, by Monday morning I would be starting down a path to an unknown destination.

You have to shave my what?

The Heart Catheterization took place in a special lab at the Cardio Clinic. I was admitted and had to wait my turn. So there I was lying in a bed, wearing a Johnny Shirt and trying to pretend this was all a bad dream when the nurse came to chat. It wasn’t long before she produced a razor and proceeded to shave my groin. This was shaping up to be a bad day.

Bless her heart though; she also gave me a mild sedative.

In a very relaxed state I was wheeled into the lab. It looked like the bridge of the Star Ship Enterprise only more so. There was a team of doctors, nurses and technicians clustered around the monitors. I was given a shot of painkiller to numb the area around my groin and could feel some work being done there but couldn’t really see anything but a huge television monitor.

What they were doing was placing a little tube into the artery in my leg. Through that tube they fed a catheter along the vein and up into my heart.

Periodically they would inject dye through the catheter to illuminate the path of the blood flow. That first burst of dye was the most amazing sensation I have ever felt.

Being fully conscious I could watch the monitor and the progress of the dye through my veins. Every now and then they would stop and discuss what they were looking at in hushed voices.

The whole experience was surreal. It made me think of the descriptions one hears from people who claim to have experienced alien abductions. They describe shadowy labs and shadowy figures with strange instruments. It was all very dream-like.

Hmmm, maybe I wasn’t as fully conscious as I think I was.

The whole point of the Cardiac Catheterization is to allow the physician to see the coronary arteries and examine the function of the heart and the heart valves. The surgeon can then plan his treatment based upon what he sees.

I came out of the lab to a recovery room. A doctor stood there chatting with me while applying pressure to my groin in order to stop the bleeding from the artery. That took about ten minutes and then a dressing was applied.

After another twenty minutes I was taken by ambulance to another hospital across town to recover for six more hours before being allowed to go home.

During the six hours after a Cardiac Catheterization you cannot move around at all. The heart must not be stressed and the wound where the catheter was inserted has to have a chance to heal.

The worst part of that was; I had to pee about three hours into it. My choices were to hold it until I could move around or another type of catheter. I chose to hold it.

The Visit to the Cardiologist

The visit to the Cardiologist was a stunner. There was no more pretending that this was all just a mistake. He was treating me as if I was ill with a life threatening disease. He reviewed the original EKG, checked me over and prescribed a cardio-stress test for later in the week.

If you are reading this you probably know the routine. Chest shaved again by a cheerful technician and the monitoring electrodes attached so that the efficiency of my heart’s workings could be observed while I walked on a gradually steeper treadmill. I lasted about two and a half minutes before the same searing pain of the night on the hill gripped my chest.

As soon as he saw the results of the cardiac stress test my Cardiologist knew I had some blockages in the arteries feeding blood to my heart. The next step was a diagnostic test called a Heart Catheterization to see where the blockages where and how seriously they were effecting the blood flow to the heart. That was also booked incredibly quickly.

If you get fast service in a restaurant, you feel pretty good. If you get fast service in a Cardiology clinic, you start to feel a bit nervous. I was getting incredibly fast, attentive care.

Next stop the Heart Catheterization.

Being a Cardiac Patient

I saw my doctor the next day as planned. Well not exactly as planned, she scoffed in my face as I told her about my stomach troubles. Within minutes I was having my chest shaved and a young technician was attaching electrodes to various spots on my ribs and belly. It was my first experience with being a cardiac patient. This was serious business.

The EKG was a painless and somewhat baffling experience that only took about five minutes. Soon I was hearing my doctor tell me that; I should have never driven home, should have called 911 at the first onset of the previous night’s problem, she thought I was suffering from cardiovascular disease, and she was referring me to a Cardiologist.

All I could think of to say was,”But, I’m not old enough!” I was only fifty-two.
“Apparently you are” was her reply to that.

She did give me something to try for my stomach which was very kind of her but took the time to call the cardiologist herself to secure me the earliest possible appointment. She also gave me a Nitro spray and instructions in its use.

The very beginning - October

I was walking up a long steep hill to where I had parked my car. I was leaving the arena where our local QMJHL hockey team was playing and feeling a little unwell.

About five minutes from the rink I got a stunning pain in my chest. My stomach roiled into nausea and my jaw and teeth started to ache. I lurched to a stop and slowly the horrible spell passed.

Shaken, I started off again and bang. Within about ten steps it came back. I could see my car and felt everything would be all right if I could just make it to there. It was a hellish twenty minutes before I finally sat behind the wheel feeling the misery subside and absolutely shaken by the experience. Is this what a heart attack is?

It sounds ridiculous to say now but as the pain subsided I convinced myself that I was suffering from acid reflux or ulcers, anything rather than a heart problem.

By the time I had driven home I was convinced that the whole episode, while unpleasant, was not really very serious. It nagged at me though and I made an appointment to see my family doctor the next day, to see if she could fix my stomach.

Together We Will Get Through This

On December the 22nd, I entered the hospital for a quadruple bypass.

I guess I had been in denial of what the pain and discomfort in my chest really meant because even while the whole admission process was happening around me I was not actually in the moment, more an observer than a participant.

I am starting this blog to tell the story in the hope that others going through the same thing will be able to share their experiences, tips, fears and insights. Getting through the surgery is only the first, stumbling step. Life afterwards is the challenge.

There is a lot of information to be found on the scientific and medical aspects of heart health and cardiac surgery but not much to be found on the “human” aspect. The, what does this mean to me? How do I live the rest of my life? What does it mean to my wife and family? What will I be able to do? What will I want to do?

If you are facing the challenge of upcoming surgery, recovering or taking the first shaky steps toward normal, leave a comment with your thoughts, hard earned insights or questions.

Together we’ll get through this.

A Second Chance at Life

“Welcome to the Zipper Club” Those are the words, uttered by a stranger who held the door for me as I exited the hospital that made me realize I had just begun a new life.

I was still too sick and groggy to begin to understand the implication of her cheerful greeting.

Clutching a small red pillow to my chest and using my full concentration to not cough as the first breath of cold outdoor air hit my tender lungs, I shuffled to the waiting car.

And so, in an agony of pain and stupefied by drugs I hugged my pillow while the snow crunched beneath the wheels of the car that was carrying me home to start my recovery and a second chance at life.