OK this is it

Really ... this is it

Wednesday July 29. No false alarms. I was the first procedure of the day so we had to be there at 6 a.m. Not much traffic then. Nice.

Same as last time, when we arrived there was paper work to do and washing with the special antibiotic handi-wipes. It was only a short wait until it was time for my 'Happy Pills'.

When the stretcher showed up I was feeling no pain. I wasn't feeling pain before, really, but at this point I was happy to climb onto the stretcher. Take me away! Cut me open! Fix my heart! All was good.

I was wheeled to the hall outside the Operating Room by a nice scottish lady who was impressed by the scottishness of my name. I said good bye to F and then I remember nothing. Not a thing. I don't have a clue.

They say now I'm fixed and everything went well. I guess. I do have some interesting wounds on my chest. But as to what happened after I made it to the Operating Theatre, I don't have any idea.

This is what they say happened.

Here's a animation of a leaking mitral valve (thanks to the Mayo Clinic).

And here's an animation of a typical repair.

In my case, apparently, the surgeon trimmed out some of the bulging tissue from the offending segment and then sutured the good parts back together (as in the video). Then he placed a ring (sort of like in the video) around the valve base to help support it. [More about the ring in another entry.]

He also bypassed the partially blocked artery on the outside of my heart and, I guess, put me back together. They added a couple of drainage tubes to carry away blood and fluid from around my heart, a typical procedure.

F says I came out of the Operating Theatre around 11:30 a.m. However, I was still bleeding quite a bit more than I should have been, so they kept me under anesthetic. They ended up having to insert another drainage tube under my left arm to take care of the excess. They kept me out through the night to help me stabilize and just in case they would have to go back in to tighten something up.

So, although the surgery didn't take that long, I was out for just over 24 hours.

Blissfully ignorant. Sleeping like a babe. Out cold. Dead to the world.