Open Heart Surgery

Thanks to my readers who stayed in touch with my situation and to those of you who kept logging on to read my older blogs during my open heart surgery. I went under the knife on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 and was home by Sunday, Jan. 2 so I didn’t have much of a Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Thanks to all of you who called, wrote, visited and inquired and are still keeping in touch today. Thanks to those of you who offered prayers, and there were many were many. Here I am in my third week of recovery and back answering emails and blogging

I’m not ready to be real active but I start therapy next week. All the nurses, doctors, medical staff at OSF made my life as comfortable as possible and I sincerely thank them all for their extra care. Except for a couple of small setbacks, I’m progressing as my surgeon, Dale Mueller projected. However, don’t call for tennis until April!!

Maybe my experience will help someone else who looks pretty good, feels pretty good and may be ignoring health warning symptoms but puts off making an appointment with his or her heart doctor. Don’t’ wait for a heart attack to have surgery. So bear with me while I tell you about my early warnings that something was wrong with me.

I had short bouts of unsteadiness and lightheadedness that didn’t improve.

I had swellings of my ankles and my family doctor recommended less salt in my diet but the swelling persisted.

I had shortness of breath on numerous occasions.

I had a general feeling at times that all was not right with my system.

On the recommendation of my family doctor, I scheduled an appointment with my heart doctor. A series of tests, one repeated, came up with a consensus that I needed a triple by-pass as soon as possible.

Remember, many people drop dead of a heart attack who claimed they never had a sick day in their lives!! My mother died in such a manner and no one suspected that she had a heart problem. That was a long while back and early detection has improved so much that there is no excuse for putting off having regular checkups and be sure to tell the doctor exactly how you feel.

While I was in the hospital my 90 year old only brother who also had a heart problem, fell and broke some ribs and died on New Years Day. Today, I learned one of my four remaining sisters was in a car accident and broke two ribs. She is home and resting.

Anyway, such is life and I’m back on my word processor and will shortly be feeling well enough to average a blog a day. I’ve accumulated lots of information that flies below the radar of our local media or is not put together as a proper story. I’ll be back trying to bring out the truth in print!!