That's what it feels like. I'll be heading to Suburban tomorrow morning for my pre-op tests in advance for surgery on my pericardium. At least this operation should be a lot less invasive, & it is supposed to help me control my pain & my blood pressure. The COBRA people finally got my check, so I won't have to pay for this completely out of pocket.

Last week's minor complication requires a bit of minor surgery, which Dr. Siegenthaler will do later this week, probably Thursday. There's a little under an inch of fluid between my heart & my pericardium. While that's not the record (there's an eerie animated GIF if you're curious about what a much worse case than mine looks like), the good doctor ( Read more... )

There are days when I feel like I could go right back to NASA HQ & do a day's worth of work, & sometimes, they're followed by a day in which I want to veg out. My goal, as I'm heading towards what could be my final week of recuperation, is to reduce the times when I'm just worn out, not push things too far, but keep moving forward. Not as easy as ( Read more... )

...when even your complications are "normal" for someone with your condition & of your age. I went in to see Dr. Hausner earlier this afternoon. She's content with my progress, except for one thing: I have extra fluid in my pericardium (the sack of tissue around the heart). This often happens to younger people who undergo open-heart surgery. By ( Read more... )

If the guys at Unum are correct, I'm two-thirds of the way back to being healthy enough to go back to work. I've been going longer & longer without having to take Tylenol all the time, but boy, when it hurts, it hurts. People tell me that broken bones & scars hurt the most when they're going through a rebuilding spurt, sort of like growing pains. ( Read more... )

Just got the COBRA forms & bill. Ouch. Suffice to say that it's about a month's rent to cover the wife & I. However, in order to keep even larger bills fom heading our way, I don't have much of a choice ( Read more... )

My recovery moves along, even if it's not quite as fast as I'd like. I thought I was strong enough to lug half a dozen bananas from the store back to the apartment this afternoon. I probably shouldn't have: While we have bananas, my arm muscles & my chest complained loudly until I took some Tylenol ( Read more... )

According to the NIH, people typically return to work six to eight weeks after their open heart surgery. I'm seriously hoping that I'm closer to six than to eight, so that I can call this the halfway point ( Read more... )

This weekend may be the weekend when my heart figures out that neither I nor anyone else is likely to pull it from my chest for the foreseeable future. I had a great time at my aunt & uncle's place for Thanksgiving, & I had a great time at Darkover ( Read more... )

My appointment with Dr. Hausner went pretty well. She was upbeat about how well I'm doing, but cautioned that I haven't been out of the hospital for 2 weeks yet (that will be Thanksgiving, a holiday which will have extra meaning for me now). Darkover is still in the cards, as long as I don't overdo it. No late night carousing, at least not this ( Read more... )