The sixth anniversary of my retirement and a triple bypass

January 11 was my mother's birthday and when I retired six years ago, I chose that date in honour of her. It is a day for me to reflect on the past year and to get excited about the next year to come.

It's a colder day today with a beautiful blue sky and temperatures about freezing.

But the warm temperatures over Christmas have confused our daffodils which are coming up months in advance of their normal arrival in March or April.

When my mother was about my age, she had a heart operation with several bypasses. Knowing this, I have tried to keep my cholesterol levels in check and religiously take my daily pills. As you know if you have been following my blogs, exercise is an important part of my retirement life and I do a three-mile walk around the community most days of the week.

Just before we headed south, I noticed on the last hill of my walk that the air in my windpipe seemed cold, which was very unusual. Over the course of our time in Georgia, I was beginning to feel that something was not right so the evening that we arrived back home, there was unusual pain so we went to the local Union Hospital in Elkton.

After an EKG, it turned out that I had suffered a mild heart attack. They transferred me to the larger Christiana Hospital in nearby Delaware to have a catheterization. You stay awake but sedated during this procedure. At the end of it, they gave me the bad news. Three of my arteries were partially blocked. Stents and balloons might do the job, but the arteries really needed to be replaced. Obviously, in the woozy state I was in no shape to make a decision, but I did have enough sense to say to the anesthesiast that this was the luckiest day of my life. He agreed. I was a really bad heart attack waiting to happen.

The procedure was done on New Year's Eve. I woke up the next morning in some pain feeling very weak, but fortunately, all the exercise has made me able to recuperate quickly. By the following Sunday afternoon, I was able to walk twice around the recuperation ward so they sent me home. I have been visited by a nurse and a Physical Therapist a couple of times and I am now outside walking around the closest block. It has a hill to climb and the walk takes about 15 minutes. Of course, I am quite buggered when I get home, but the exercise is wonderful for my recovery process. The other vital signs continue to improve so I am quite hopeful.

One of the doctors told Marianne that all the walking over the past six years saved me. My regular doctor happened to see me at Union Hospital and was amazed to see me there. 

The last time I spent any time in a hospital was when I was 15 and had my tonsils removed. Procedures have changed since then! Everybody was very professional, friendly, and helpful. I quickly found that if I asked every nurse who looked after me where they got their training and some more questions about their career, then they became more interested in me. Quickly you realize that they see hundreds of patients who are focused on themselves. To have the focus changed to the nurse, each of whom have their own set of problems is a novelty. Only one person said 'it's a job'. All the others loved their work and I tip my hat to them.

I have a five-week trip to India planned for early February. Obviously, that trip is in doubt but we will see how I feel later in the month. I may just postpone it for a year.

So don't worry about me. My vital signs are improving every day and I fully expect to be out there in all parts of the world taking more photos for more blogs.