1 Year Ago
On 02 April 2025, I had triple bypass surgery. I had about 2 months' early warning that it was going to happen, so I had already come to terms with my situation. Hal knew all about what was going on, and what was going to happen with my surgery. His sister flew up from Florida to spend time with us, and I truly appreciated her being here with us.
As far as the day and the surgery, I don’t remember a thing. I suppose that was a good thing, but the only thing I would have remembered was going to sleep with the anesthesia. I don’t remember how long the surgery lasted or how long I was out.
It wasn’t until 03 April that I started to slowly regain consciousness. Hal and Phyllis were there when I finally woke up, and seeing them made me so happy because I knew I had survived the ordeal. The doctors and nurses were terrific, and they started pushing me into physical therapy to help me regain my strength. The pain was severe, and I never felt so weak in my life. The initial recovery lasted about 2 weeks in the hospital.
My next stop was a full-time physical therapy center. I was pushed again and making progress until one of the wires holding my breastbone together snapped. I never felt such intense pain in my life! I screamed so loud that several nurses came rushing in to see what was wrong. I was taken back to the hospital and they were able to repair the damage, but it set my recovery back to ground zero. I was really hesitant about therapy for the first few days, but I slowly got back into the routine.
After 6 weeks, I was sent to a secondary rehab center/REST HOME that I will refer to as Cemetery Prep School. The place was dirty, it smelled terrible, the "therapy" was a joke, and the food gave me food poisoning and then UTI and Kidney infections, which I have battled ever since with repeated hospital visits. I finally left that hellhole in late July of 2025.
When I got home, I recovered very quickly from my ordeal, but I was still weak and got tired easily. The infections kept recurring, and I was in the hospital multiple times between July 2025 and the present. During my time at home, I recovered much more quickly, and I told the hospital staff that I would NEVER go to Cemetery Prep School again!
I eventually got back into my writing and feel the need to write at least a little every day. Substack and my Ghost blog have kept me sane, or at least as sane as I can be with all I have gone through. My brain doesn't work as well as it did 6 years ago, when my health first started falling apart. I can be in the middle of a sentence and then cannot remember what the next word should be. I get frustrated by this. I used to be eloquent, but I fear that some brain damage has occurred over the last 6 years. I don't know what to do about that other than to just keep trying to concentrate.
I hope that I am over the infections at last. I lost 100 pounds since my surgery, and i don't want to gain it back. I am regaining my strength little by little. I can drive now, and walk short distances with a walker. For longer trips, I still use my wheelchair because I get tired too easily and my balance still makes me stumble and occasionally fall.