Update

Well, it's been about a week or so without any word here from me - but I have my reasons.

Last Monday I had quadruple bypass and a cryo maze procedure. I'm a big, yes big guy with a big chest. The bypasses only took about two and a half hours to complete - the cryo maze took the rest of the six hours. I was informed by the surgeon that they really had to spread me open in order to get deep in the chest cavity. I have suffered some nerve damage. My two little fingers on each hand are totally without feeling, and my left arm is basically useless. This is an improved situation - I can raise my left arm without assistance from my right, but it has taken all this time. I tried to trim my fingernails today - the right hand can barely trim the left, but forget the left doing anything productive for a while.

So, typing much very well is right out, too. I owe many of you a fairly lengthy note, but I am pretty much incapable of that at the moment. So, if you got an email from me with just a link to this post, I hope you will understand - I'm trying to kill several birds with one stone here.

It was originally thought I might get released as early as Friday the 7th, but there were a few complications. Early Friday morning about 4:30 a nurse woke me up. Their telemetry people had noticed my heart rate had dropped to twenty beats/sec. They hooked up a temporary pacemaker, have me prewired for such an occasion. However, one of the wires was missing. It was the prevailing opinion to install a temp in my heart via my thigh a la heart catheterization. They finally decided to hold off and try drugs to regulate it better. Turns out I have a slow thyroid.

I also was sodium deficient, so I've been on 1500ccs of liquid for several days. My white blood cell count was high, so intravenous antibiotics have been administered. My heart has resumed atrial fibrillation, so they are going to shock it to get it into normal sinus rhythm. To be successful, this may take several tries. They were going to schedule this for Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. But since I haven't been on coumadin for quite a while, my protimes aren't where they should be. They're giving me blood thinners intravenously for a few days to fix that. Then, they'll start me up.

Honestly, while I'd like to get out of here, I'm not ready. I just don't have the arm strength yet. Yeah, the cable sucks compared to my home entertainment center, and I'm still on dialup, but if I need help it's a buzzer away. A few more days here aren't gonna hurt me.

Probably the scariest thing about all this was when I was waking up after surgery. They had some trouble keeping me oxygenated because of the mucous from my smoking habit. It also doesn't help that their equipment was designed for smaller people. I woke up unable to suck enough air and with no arms to do anything about it. Of course I couldn't talk. It's probably just as well - I'd have ripped the breathing tube out if I could have. They kept telling me that the O2 levels had to be dropped gradually to see if I could get off the tube, and it seemed to me to be pretty counterproductive to give me less air when it was obvious (to me at the time, anyways) that I needed more.

Thank you all for your positive thoughts and prayers. Y'all have no idea how much that meant to me a during this time. May I be able to return the favor some day. Thanks so much.