I guess you've noticed that I haven't posted in a while. Last Friday I ended up in the hospital after experiencing a frightening shortness of breath while walking up the hill on the way to work. It turns out that the quintuple bypass I had back in 1999 has deteriorated a good deal in the last twenty years, and just one of the five grafts is in working condition. After a catheterization at Chambersburg Hospital and a series of scans and other tests at Penn State/Hershey Medical Center, the determination was that we had two choices - another bypass operation at Hershey, or a series of strategically placed stents to be done back in Chambersburg. Interestingly enough, the thoracic surgeon at Hershey, in consultation with his team and other surgical colleagues, thought that surgery in my case might be a little too risky because of the location of the remaining graft - it was too vulnerable to inadvertent damage that might occur while placing the new grafts. So we all decided that the stents are the way to go. So now I'm back home waiting for the Chambersburg doctor, who did the heart catheterization in the first place, to set an appointment to come back for the stent placement.
I arrived back here late yesterday afternoon, and what a joy it was to come home! Last night I had a meal cooked by me (Portuguese Kale Soup) with real coffee, and slept in my own bed without IV ports in my arm, and woke up to the sound of gentle rain coming in through my open windows. I'm definitely a homebody, and this was heaven!
The photo above is the little gazebo across the street from me, taken this morning soon after the rain stopped. Seeing that gazebo as I come up or down King Street always says "I'm almost home." And below is my favorite song about a quiet night at home. Now if only I had a fireplace!
© 2019 by A. Roy Hilbinger
No comments:
Post a Comment