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Heart Disease,
those horrible words no one wants to hear especially when it relates to staying home for the winter while many of our friends headed South for the warmer and sunnier days, the beautiful beaches and those adventures that we will never forget.
Perhaps the first inkling that something was not right occurred at the end of September, 2009 shortly after we moved our 5th wheel and other odds and ends over from Vancouver to our new home in Cumberland. Maybe it was the stress, maybe it was lifting heavy boxes or my heavy fifth wheel hitch, I don't know but it was shortly after this that I experienced a tightening in the chest and what I thought was acid indigestion. This indigestion did not go away like it usually did after taking my favorite anti-acid and when it occurred again the next day and was again slow in going away, I decided to see a doctor. Cumberland has a new medical clinic with three doctors, two of which were relatively new to this clinic and had plenty of room for new clients. I called up the clinic in the morning and behold I had an appointment that afternoon. Wow, there is a bonus for smaller communities. Dr. Hubner, a family doctor, checked my blood pressure, listened to my heart with his stethoscope and went through a series of other small tests. When he asked me about a bit of family history and I mentioned how many heart problems we had in our family, his eye brows immediately raised up and he said "Okay, that clinches it, I will make an appointment for you right away to see a Cardiologist, you will get a call in a day or two with an appointment time." Several days later I received a call from Dr. Simice's office in Comox with an appointment time a week later. How this doctor was selected I don't know and being new to the area, Betty and I, of course knew or were familiar with any of the doctors in the Comox Valley. On the day of our appointment I showed up at his office. He shared an office with a couple of other doctors. It was a very plain old style office. The first thing I noticed were the rows upon rows of file folders around the walls surrounding what looked like a researchers desk. I was not sure if I was in the right place but the lady at the desk smiled at me and asked my name. She was the receptionist after all and I was in the right place. "Nice to see you Mr. Pollard" she said, "Please have a seat, it will just be a moment". The lady pointed over to a couple of chairs over by a table in the corner which was piled with well worn magazines and where a couple of other people were sitting. I walked over to the waiting area, found a vacant seat and sat down. I remember looking at my watch seeing that I was five minutes early and so anticipating a bit of leisure time I picked up a magazine to pass the time. I had not more than shuffled through a page or two when this husky man bounces out of a door, over to the receptionist to grab a few papers, then over to me extending his hand saying "Hi I'm Dr. Simice and you must be Mr. Pollard, come with me and we'll talk about this problem of yours". Dr. Simice appeared to me to be in his lower 60's, a fairly husky and exuberant man with lots of energy. As soon as we sat down he looked at the papers in his hands and his first question to me was, "okay, what kind of god damn poisons are you taking? You know, those things they call pills." I guess you can say this is one way of breaking the ice. We went through a very thorough list of questions about past life styles, family history, etc. "How much do you weigh? and by the way, I am putting you on the South Beach Diet." "I don't like your family history of heart problems" he says, "I got the same god damn history problem and no matter what you do,things come back to bite you." "This is what we are going to do", he says, "you are going on that diet to lose some weight, I am going to put you on some blood pressure pills as your pressure is just on the verge of being high and we are going to start a series of tests to see what we can find." That was my introduction to Dr. Simice, he pulled no punches, he was blunt and to the point and he got things moving right away. His gruff blunt presentation might scare some people but not me, I like people that get right to the point and not dwell on the mundane things. Several days later, I received a phone call from Dr. Simice's office with the appointment time at the St. Joseph Hospital in Comox for the beginning of my tests. It was to be the dreaded ECG STRESS TEST. On the day of my first series of tests I arrived at the hospital wearing running shoes and jogging pants and a tee shirt. I had been told to wear loose clothing for the tread mill so I came prepared. Betty and I had been going to the gym doing tread mill work and light weight lifting so I was prepared. The first thing one gets is the ECG plain and simple lying down with no stress. This did not take long to do, everything in the lab was well organized and I had my own lab tech so there was no waiting. Next on the agenda is the ECG under stress. Dr. Simice arrives to monitor this portion of the test, asks me a few general questions and mentions that if I don't feel up to using the tread mill they can do this test chemically with a needle in my arm to simulate stress to the heart. "No", I said, "I should be alright, I've been going to the gym." "That's nice", he said with a little smile, "let's get on with it then." "Alright," the lab tech said as she was hooking another ECG to my chest, "we will start the tread mill at a slow speed for a few minutes and then slowly build up speed. We will increase the slope up to 3 degrees and as all this is happening we will be monitoring your heart so don't worry, are you ready?" "Yup," I said "let's go for it." The tread mill starts up and out of the corner of my eye I saw Dr. Simice move over to where he could watch the ECG print out and there on the wall beside the printer was a set of defibrillation paddles. Funny, I never noticed those before. We were now on high speed and had reached the three degree slope. I was panting pretty good, a bit sweaty too, saying to myself, "well, I guess I made it, this must be the end." The lab tech next to me then said, "okay Larry, you are doing fine, now I want you to tell me when you think you have reached half way of your endurance. We will then increase the speed one more notch for the last half." "WHAT!" I thought, "how in the hell am I going to handle this." Not wanting to appear a wimp, I waited for another minute and then gasped out, "half way!" Yes, I did make it to the end. Dr. Simice did not have to use those paddles and I did not feel any pain in my chest. They set me down in the chair to get my breath back and as I sat there gasping and puffing, I noticed Dr. Simice and the lab tech hovering over the printer, talking in low tones and pointing to the various squiggly lines. Dr. Simice comes over to me while I am doing up my shirt and says, "Well, we are picking up some problems with your heart that starts when your heart beat reaches 135 beats per minute. That's not good and I want to dig into this a little deeper. I am going to schedule you for a nuclear heart scan in a few days and that way we can have a good look at what is happening." We sit down. He gets some more information and asks me to stay a little longer. A few minutes later the nuclear tech shows up with a clip board and goes over what will be required of me and what nuclear imaging is about. He says that it is going to be similar to what I just went through. There will be 2 days of imaging. The first will be with a stress test again only this time they will use a needle to insert an intravenous (IV) line into a vein in my arm. Through this IV line, he or she will put the radioactive tracers into my bloodstream at the right time. I also will have ECG (electrocardiogram) patches attached to my body to check my heart rate during the test. He says, "The nuclear heart scan will start shortly after the exercise or chemical stress test. You will be asked to lie very still on a padded table. The nuclear heart scan camera, called a gamma camera, is enclosed in a metal housing. The part of the camera that detects the radioactivity from the tracer can be put in several positions around your body as you lie on the padded table. The metal housing is shaped like a doughnut and you lie on a table that goes slowly through the doughnut hole. The computer used to collect the pictures of your heart is in another room and it will all be recorded." "The next day we will get you to come in again in the morning and we will do a rest scan. No treadmill this time, just the IV in the arm with the radioactive tracers and another scan in the machine." "Your scans will then be read by a doctor who specializes in these readings and the information will be passed on to your cardiologist, Dr. Simice, who will go over them with you." "In the mean time, the hospital will contact you and set up your appointment schedule." Well, I guess that is that. Now I just wait for the phone call for the next phase. As it happens, in a couple of days the hospital does call, but there is a little problem. It appears that the Comox Hospital has run out of radioactive tracer material and there is a delay in getting replacements due to the Canadian reactor problems back East. She said, "Nanaimo has plenty of material and we can get an appointment for you there next week if you would like or it would be about three weeks for us to get resupplied." I am feeling fine so I tell her I would wait and to give me a call when it's in. True to her word, in about three weeks I get a call and we make an appointment. To shorten the story, I go through the 2 days of imaging and then I wait for the pictures to be read and the results given to my cardiologist. Up to this time I have been feeling quite well. I have had no heart burn attacks, a fair amount of energy and Betty and I have been going to the gym almost daily working out and we were losing weight! I guess because of this we were both feeling a little confident thinking if there was a problem it would be something minor or something that could be easily fixed. We were now waiting for our phone call and the results of the imaging. Four days later, I get my call from Dr. Simice's office. Would I come in please, the results are in and Dr. Simice would like to go over them with me. The appointment was for Tuesday, Dec. 08/09. At the day of my appointment I arrive at his office. I am still confident things can't be too bad, hell, I feel fine. Dr. Simice calls me in and I sit down. Direct to the point Dr. Simice says, "Well my boy, I am sorry to say you've got coronary heart disease." Just like that, right between the eyes, I stare at him. "As a matter of fact," he says, "you have had two heart attacks, we can tell from the scars on your heart." "You have several blockages," he says, "we are going to send you to Victoria to the Royal Jubilee Hospital where they will do an angiogram, angioplasty and possibly install some stents." "I have already talked to the head of the heart department there and given them your particulars so they know all about you," he says, "you will get a call from them with the appointment times and any particulars you'll need to follow. Do you have any questions?" I am still staring at him with my mouth hanging open and come out with the stupid remark, "I suppose this means I gotta quit going to the gym and no more weight lifting?" Doctors, I'm sure get these dumb replies all the time but he says to me, "well, yes, at least for the time being until we get you all fixed up. I still want you to go for walks though and keep physically active without over doing things. Keep your walks at a medium pace, we found your problems started when your heart beat reached 135 beats per minute." That was it. I had it, the dreaded coronary heart disease, the Pollard Curse..
Angina is chest pain or discomfort that occurs when not enough oxygen-rich blood is flowing to an area of your heart muscle. Angina may feel like pressure or squeezing in your chest. The pain also may occur in your shoulders, arms, neck, jaw, or back. A heart attack occurs when blood flow to an area of your heart muscle is completely blocked. This prevents oxygen-rich blood from reaching that area of heart muscle and causes it to die. Without quick treatment, a heart attack can lead to serious problems and even death. Over time, CAD can weaken the heart muscle and lead to heart failure and arrhythmias (ah-RITH-me-ahs). Heart failure is a condition in which your heart can't pump enough blood throughout your body. Arrhythmias are problems with the speed or rhythm of your heartbeat.
Well, I must say, the months of December and January were the longest and most stressful months I had ever spent. I was so shocked when Larry came home and told me the news that he was diagnosed with Coronary Heart Disease on December 8. I could not stop crying. At first we were with the impression that the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria would call us within a matter of a couple days to set up the appointment for the stent procedure. When Larry told me that he had three seriously blocked arteries, and that the tests indicated that he had scar tissue on his heart muscle to indicate two small heart attacks, I took for granted that they would react immediately. Well, the call that should have come in within a matter of 4 days did not come in until December 23. We were so afraid of picking up germs and having the procedure cancelled that we cancelled our Christmas plans. We had a lovely and quiet Christmas with our friends, Bill and Marilyn Mallett, in Comox and had a return visit from them and two of their granddaughters at our place on New Year's Eve and that was the sum total of our holiday celebrations. We did not wish to have any out of town guests in case Larry picked up a bug, had another attack or got the call to go to Victoria. Our life consisted of eating, sleeping, and walking. Bill, Marilyn, Larry and I would meet at the Airpark in Courtenay nearly every day and walk 4 - 5 kms. We sure missed them after they headed south in January. As it turned out, an appointment was arranged for January 14. Now, it would be over 5 weeks since he was diagnosed. I felt I was living with a walking time bomb. I was watching him constantly; especially at night when we were sleeping. Several times in the night I would put my face in front of his to feel his breath on mine. I monitored everything he did. I made sure that he did not overstrain himself. The Dr. Had given him some nitro spray and I mentally practised CPR and prepared myself for an emergency trip. He only had to use the nitro spray a couple of times. The "What if" question was never discussed, but I know we were both doing a lot of thinking. We have had 17 wonderful years together and have made so many plans for the future. For those of you who know Larry, he does not like to sit still for too long. Life is never dull with him around. I felt so sorry for him while he sat and waited for the call, but also very proud of him for his endurance. He spent his time sitting in his recliner with his lap top. He copied some notes that his father, Lindsay Pollard had written while Lindsay had interviewed his father-in-law, William Diehl, in 1932. William Diehl was one of the scouts who captured Louie Riel during the Red River Uprising in 1885. Lindsay's notes were all written in pencil and took up over 70 pages of foolscap. Larry very patiently transferred the script to the computer and has since shared copies with other members of the family. He also purchased several books written by Bryce Courtenay (Author of "the Power of One" and "Tandia") and spent his time reading and writing broken up with long 3-5 km walks with me. Somehow we managed to occupy ourselves until January 13 with this heart problem weighing heavily on our minds. Our worries and concerns for Larry were magnified when we received a call from Saskatchewan on January 10. His older brother, Ron Pollard, age 77 had passed away suddenly from what was suspected to be a fatal heart attack. We both were so saddened by the news especially when we could not travel to Saskatoon for the funeral. We had waited so long for this appointment and just could not take any chances of being put further down the list.
Victoria is located about 2.5 hours from Cumberland. The highway conditions were excellent. We arrived at the Heart House just before noon on January 13.
After the manager/hostess, Suzanne, showed us around, we settled into our room, put a few things away and then headed over to the Hillside Mall for lunch in the food court. By the time we returned to the Heart House, some of the other guests were in the lounge. We were amazed that several were from the Kelowna area. And was it me or did these people look older than Larry and I? We are both 65 but have always acted and felt a lot younger....or so we thought. After listening to the various heart problems that they or their spouses were going through we were both feeling a little guilty about the fact that Larry was just going to have a minor stent procedure the next day. Both of us were starting to feel more and more relieved in thinking that in 24 hours this nightmare will be over and we will be able to get on with our lives. I have to admit that we may have given the impression that we were a bit cocky. We got up the morning of the 14th. We had a lovely breakfast and walked over to the hospital. I told Larry that I wanted to stay with him as long as I could. Not long after arriving at the hospital at 10:00 A.M. we were taken to the Short Stay Unit. Larry was given a bed and was asked to slip into the glorious and sexless hospital gown. After a couple sessions of blood pressure taking and temperature taking we were asked to move around the corner to watch a video on the stent procedure. Wow, was that ever interesting. We met another couple there who were also guests at the Heart House. The wife thought she would need a stent but it turned out she was fine. What a relief for them. I thought maybe Larry will also be told that nothing was wrong because, besides being very worried about his heart, Larry did not feel unhealthy. I left just before they were going to start Larry's procedure. We were both surprised that they were going to do an angiogram before the angioplasty. We were with the impression that the tests in Comox already pinpointed the problem and that he was just getting an angioplasty. The nurse walked with me to the access doors. I asked her when I could come to pick him up. She must have sensed that we were both a bit too overconfident. She quietly mentioned to me that there may be a chance that he may need open heart surgery. I just shook my head. He is only in there for a stent otherwise the Dr. would have told us. She just smiled and told me to call her after 3:00 P.M. Larry writes: My angioplasty is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and I have been prepped by the nurses. I'm wearing one of those dumb gowns that tie up in the back. I was laying in bed waiting. Betty and I are looking at the clock, it seems to move so slowly but we are passing the time with idle chat. The nurse comes by and asks if I would like a sedative to calm my nerves while waiting. I don't seem to have any problem and thank her but "no I don't need any." I know that there will be no anaesthetic during this procedure and that I will be wide awake. This is going to be interesting, I think. At 1:15 the orderly comes in to get me and we are off to the operating room, I wave goodbye to Betty as we go out the door. Funny, I remember feeling a breeze in my face going down the hall way thinking that this guy is no slouch and is really moving along. I guess he is a busy man. Like I said, being wide awake, this is going to be interesting. I get wheeled into this large room with tons of equipment all over the place. There are several people waiting for me and they are friendly and chat while hooking up tubes and wires to my body. I can see a couple of television monitors up high to my left so I think, great, I can watch what's going on. Someone wheels a machine up to the side of my bed and swings over a big camera that hovers over my chest. There goes my view I think, now I can't see the damn TV set to watch. The surgeon is now taping my right wrist to the bed. "I will be inserting the tube in a vein in your wrist," he says, "I will also give you a little local anaesthetic where we go in and that will be the only thing you will feel, are you ready?" "Sure" I say, "let's go for it." At least I can watch him work the tube in my wrist I think. Well, he then proceeds to put a blind between me and my wrist blocking any view I could have, what a bummer. "I am going to give you some anaesthetic on your wrist now" , the doctor says. Sure enough I can feel a slight tingle and nothing more. "We are going to start the tube up your vein now," he says, "you should not feel anything." "That camera over your chest will be moving around, back and forth so don't worry about that and if you see the lights dim it only means that we are taking a picture and don't want the lights to cause any interference." You know, I am sure I could feel a bit of a flicker inside my arm near my right elbow as the tube goes by, weird. The camera moves to the right a bit and it gives me some view of the TV. I can see something on the screen that looks like a blade of grass and it is waving back and forth. The angle isn't the greatest but at least I can see something. I hear a bang and the lights go out! "What the hell was that," I think. The lights come back on and the doctor says, "we are taking some pictures now." The camera moves again and I lose my view. The lights go on and off taking more pictures. "They are injecting some dye or something through this tube in my heart", the nurse says. "but you should not feel anything." You know, she is wrong I think, I can feel a slight flutter in my heart as this tube moves around....then it is gone and I feel nothing. Some time later, I'm not sure how long, after the lights bang off and on and the camera moves all over the place the doctor says, "okay, we are almost done now." "We are just going to inject this chemical into your heart to check how strong your heart is." "You will feel a sudden warming all over for a second or two and then it will be gone." One of the nurses chuckles and says, "it will feel like you just wet the bed but don't worry, you didn't" Sure as hell, I could feel this heat wave go from my chest right down to my ankles, then it was gone. "That is as far as we are going to go," the doctor says, "we are taking the tube out now." I think that this is too fast, surely it must take a little longer than this to get every thing done. The surgeon now says, "you have too many blockages Mr. Pollard." "I don't think it is in your best interests to use stents for these and that open heart surgery and by passes would fit the bill much better." I am devastated! "Open heart surgery," I think, "that's exactly what my uncle Ernie had 30 years ago." "He said they cut open your breast bone and split it apart like a clam shell, take out your heart and flop it on a table like a fish waiting to be cleaned, attach a bunch of pieces of pipes around your blockages, stick your heart back in your chest and wire up your breast bone." "Nothing to it," he said, "I had mine done 30 years ago and I am still kicking." "You won't have a bit of a problem." My uncle Ernie, who is eight-eight years old, has been through it all so he knows, but heck, open heart surgery, for me. I sure never expected it. The orderly that drives like hell picks me up again and with the wind blowing in my face and my hair bent backwards I get wheeled back into the recovery area of the Short Stay Unit. I'm told I have to wait a few hours until the special pressure bandage on my wrist,where the incision was made, is allowed to heal. If the tube had gone in a vein in my groin I am told, I would have had to stay overnight. I'm also told that Betty had phoned at 3 p.m. and knows all about the results. "God," I think, "I'm sorry Betty." Betty arrives around 5 p.m. to pick me up. We will have to wait a little while yet. This neat bandage on my wrist is like a tire tube, only clear and is filled with a certain pressure. Every half hour or so the nurse lowers the pressure until it is empty and the wound has healed. It looks like things are not quiet ready yet and we will have to wait for an hour or so. I get to have dinner on the hospital and even Betty joins on a lovely hospital meal, yum. Soon six o'clock comes by, my bandage comes off and I am released.
I called my daughter, she was not at her office, her assistant could not understand me, I was crying so hard but I finally managed to get some words out and she managed to calm me down. I felt a lot better after talking to Tammy. I dried my eyes, applied fresh makeup and walked back to the hospital to put on a happy face to greet Larry. He was sitting up on the bed reading his book. He was as shocked as I was and we were both not looking forward to more weeks of waiting. He was not discharged out of the hospital until after 6:P.M. When they did the angiogram they had to insert a tube up his arm. He was a little sore so it was a good thing I drove the car over to the hospital. The nurse managed to get a dinner tray for both of us so we did not have to worry about a meal later. We were two dazed people walking into the Heart House that evening. Our confidence had been knocked right out of us. Larry felt well enough the next day to drive back to Cumberland. We had to wait two more long and anxious weeks before he had an appointment with the heart surgeon in Victoria on January 28. This time we only spent one night at the Heart House.
You cannot imagine how relieved we both felt when we got the call from Dr. Fedoruk's office on February 1. They had an opening on February 9. This time we booked a week at the Heart House. We returned to Victoria on Sunday, February 7. The Heart House had become a home away from home for us. We are pleased that this service is available. The nightly rate is reasonable and includes a continental breakfast. What I appreciated was the fact that the guests were all experiencing one form of heart disease or another and everyone was so willing to share their experiences. Nearly every afternoon and evening found a group of us in the lounge or kitchen having an in-depth group discussion. Everyone was so supportive of each other. The house was very busy at times with guests coming and going each day. We could not check in until after 6:00 P.M. (the office is closed between 1:00 P.M. and 6:00 P.M.) so we stopped in Nanaimo and had a visit with Larry's cousin, Janice and her husband, Gordie Robinson. Gordie and Janice own Long Lake Bed and Breakfast in Nanaimo. Besides his Uncle Ernie, Aunt Mary and Aunt Jean in Victoria, Larry also has several cousins and a nephew living in the Victoria area. Heart Disease is in the Pollard family history so they were all very concerned about Larry. Larry sure appreciated their calls and emails and I appreciated the lunch visit with Aunt Jean and again with cousin, Roberta and Ed Campbell. My son, Rob Klatt, and his family also live in Victoria. On Monday, February 8, we walked over to the hospital for the pre-op orientation. Larry had to be there for 11:30. We were there until 4:00. The staff members were excellent in explaining to us the process of going through Open Heart surgery. I felt a little bit more at ease after that session.
Upon arrival at the hospital, the first thing they did was get him into the hospital gown, shaved his chest and the inside of his right leg and the usual routine of blood pressure checks, etc. I stayed with him until around 12:30. There was not much left for me to do but wait. The Dr. mentioned that she would be starting the procedure around 1:30 and it usually takes 4 to 5 hours so I did not expect to hear anything until after 6:00 P.M. The first thing I did after leaving the hospital was walk over to the Safeway's store and load up on a supply of junk food to get me through the next few days. I also picked up a couple egg salad sandwiches and walked back to the little park along the side of the hospital. It was a fairly nice and sunny day. It is funny what goes through one's mind. As I sat on the park bench eating my sandwich, I observed a couple squirrels racing from tree to tree. I thought, here these two squirrels are...busy as old heck....totally unaware of what is going on in that big building beside their home in the trees. Totally unaware of how their antics bring smiles to the faces of people like myself who need moments like this to regroup. I finished my sandwich and walked back to the Heart House for a wee nap. The afternoon seemed to drag on. I had made myself a cup of tea and was visiting another lady in the lounge when my cell phone rang at 5:15. It was Dr. Fedoruk. I was so relieved when she told me that the operation was over and went very well. She did do 5 by-passes but Larry has responded very well. He will be in the Cardiac Care Unit around 6:00 P.M. I could go and see him then.I made a couple phone calls to Larry's brother, Roy in Saskatchewan and to his son, Tim,in Grand Prairie and daughter, Cate,in Merritt before I walked back to the hospital. I had mentally braced myself for what I was going to see.
See Betty, I told you I'd make it!
Arm wrestling with the nurse
They even make you brush your teeth
Finally, disconnecting me for my move to my room
After spending the night after my operation and part of the next morning in the CCU (cardiac care unit), the nurse starts to disconnect the tubes and wires connecting me to the support and monitoring machines. I am off to my room in 4 West where I will spend the next few days recuperating from the operation, gaining strength and allowing things to heal before my discharge from the hospital. Some of my memories of the next few days: Wow, is it ever noisy here. I share a room with three other patients. There are families coming to visit in the morning, they are full of adrenalin and excitement and their voices reflect this. New patients come and go during the day with much clanking, noisy curtain pulling and the occasional bump into my bed. There are no visitors between the hours of one and three p.m. (but not always), you see this is nap time. Maybe no visitors but it seems to be a great time to move all those patients that need to be shuffled from one room to another. Even the nights are noisy. When Betty comes to visit me, my first request is a good pair of wax ear plugs. Those ear plugs become a life saver. Uncle Ernie comes to visit me, cracking his usual hospital jokes. I warned him previously, "no jokes" uncle Ernie, "it'll hurt if I laugh." Does this stop him? No, of course not, not in the least and he carries right on telling jokes. But I am surprised, it does not hurt to laugh a bit like I thought it would. I wish I had had my camera to take his picture but Betty has the camera. The days slowly go by. My cousin,Roberta and her husband,Ed come by one day to visit me. Aunt Jean drives over from her house on another day for a short visit. I get my first shower. Some more tubes and wires get removed. "Do I need more pain killers", "No I'm doing fine thanks." I practice my deep breathing exercises to help inflate my collapsed lungs. Walk, walk, and more walk. "You need to build up your strength," the nurses say.
Saturday morning arrives after a quieter than usual night. It was during my yummy breakfast that the nurse comes by and says there might be a delay. It seems that Dr. Fedoruk's associate has been up all night doing emergency open heart surgery and she was not sure if he was going to come by when he got off or if he will try to get some sleep first. Shortly after this news reached me, he shows up and checks be over. Everything is fine and I meet the criteria. "Yeaaaaa, I'm out of here." Later I find out that the doctor did his regular surgery yesterday, did an emergency open heart surgery in the evening and then another emergency open heart surgery overnight. He still had enough energy to come in and see Dr. Fedoruk's patients in the morning. Incredible, how do they do it? Betty has been notified of my release I'm told by the nurse and will be here to pick me up at 3 p.m. It's all over, and I'm outaaaa here! I find out later that while the surgeon was busy all night doing emergency surgeries, Betty was up most of the night at the Heart House consoling the wives of the patients.
It looks like this is it. Look after your heart, it may not mean much to you now if you are under fifty but it sure does after you reach fifty and your past sins catch up with you. If you are a POLLARD and a male, well, ..... I'm sorry, but look what you have to look forward to. [- back to home page -] |
