Personal notes and a miracle (of sorts)

For those who knew: Thank you for your kind thoughts.

For those who didn’t know: I still felt your kind thoughts.

Last week (of February 2014) was a bit of an adventure for me, involving a trip to the hospital emergency room, that morphed into a little more than a three-day hospital stay.

For those who don’t know me, I have suffered from a chronic heart condition for many years, which has included the implantation of a number of arterial stents in my coronary arteries, a rather unsuccessful attempt at coronary artery bypass graphs and chronic angina (chest pain and discomfort). It was the confluence of those conditions that compelled me to retire eight years ago.

Anyway, the last few weeks the level of my chest discomfort had increasec to the level which, at the advice of my brother (the surgeon) and my cardiologist's  physician assistant,led me to pay the visit to the emergency room at the area’s trauma care and teaching hospital, which led to yet another heart catherization (of which I have had quite enough, thank you) followed by a second catherization to install two or three (I really have not been able to keep that straight) stents (which brings me to at least 10 now) in my poor battered ticker.

The good parts of the story are a) I survived it all; b) I was able to have both my daughters visit (which is special) and c) I got rather good news, for which no one really has much an explanation.

The good news, for those who have followed my condition, is that one of those three occluded arterial bypass graphs has for some unknown reason and methodology reopened and essentially is clear now. I find this remarkable, as you see, as cardiologists in two major cardio-research hospitals had told me that it was closed and there wasn’t much that could be done about it.

The cardiologists working on me had said the new blockages in my heart (well at least one) offered them a considerable challenge since it one of them was at the junction of two arteries that already had one stent. Exactly how they solved the problem of putting a stent in this Y junction, I am not sure (even though I was essentially awake for most of the process and counting holes in the acoustical  tile in the ceiling and listening to the humorous chatter among the operation room staff).

However, I am home once again. Relatively pain-free (back to my normal level of angina discomfort that has been my companion for the last 14 years).

For those who may have said prayers for me: I thank you.

For those who say prayers for me now: I thank you.

For those who believe in these sort of things, know that I am thankful for the apparent miracle that has occurred in my body and am extremely grateful for the divine power that allowed it to happen to me.

You know, I really do think there is a God and God does have a purpose for us and takes an active role in our lives (if we let “him”). We just have to keep the faith and keep on truckin’ as the old saying goes.