more freakin' numbers....

Jesus this is getting old....

numbers.....I love when I can write about goals met, goals missed, goals in process....

Not so today....this is one of those medical numbers blogs....wheeeee.......

My pre op appointment got moved to yesterday.  It is interesting, I met with a PA...a cardiologist PA, Brad....He is the one who really really deals with the patients.  I realized yesterday that while talking to the Cardiologist and the Electrophysiologist, that I was talking to the rock stars.....don't get me wrong, they were not dismissive or remote in the least....but they are...hmmmm cavalier.

Brad?

Not so much....the whole thing about "being awake" for this procedure....well...that must be a rock star doctor language thing....I will be on  fentanyl and versed.    I won't remember shit.  The PA said it will be like a really crazy bender without any hang over....and it clears my system much faster too.

This was my favorite piece of news....oh yes...I mean, I will be awake in so far as there is no tube down my throat and, get this, I will be talking and they can ask me to move around and ask me questions, but I won't remember any of it.

As for recovery?

ah.....very different....

2      Number of days I am not allowed to drive.

7     Number of days I am banned from physical contact, nudge nudge, wink wink.

3    Number of weeks I cannot lift anything heavy.

15  Number of pounds considered "heavy."

1    Number of months before I should go back to working out.

50  Percent of exertion once I go back to said working out.

4-6   Number of weeks before I can touch "one of those telephone poles." (but given some of the other numbers on here, it would have to be super light.

149/100  My god damn blood pressure yesterday....ridiculous.  I can't wait til this is over.

2   number of millimeters...the diameter of the catheters they will snake into my heart. Cool!

6/2  Date of the surgery

11:30  Time of said surgery

6  Number of weeks before the burns in my heart will heal fully. Yup, burns...sonic burns!

Given that the other two docs said, you get back to your normal life right away, this seems like an awful lot of numbers that limit what I would call "normal" doesn't it?  But, really, it's ok, it isn't that long....This guy really looked at what I do, how I train, and basically said, don't be stupid.  If you want to keep doing this, do it smartly.  He even lectured me about squats.  I can't even do a body weight squat. Wanna know why?  He said it would get messy, blood everywhere....gross... (BJ might really ban me if I did that) The insertion sites take a lot of time to heal.

Get back to normal life right away may mean something different to a majority of their patients. Even though BOTH of the other docs listened and obviously put in my chart how I work out, Brad is the one who mapped out what this recovery is going to really look like for me.

It will take many months to get back into shape.  That is just a fact right now.  I will try not to be stupid about it, funny, I had thought....3 weeks after surgery is Pikes Peak...I bet I'll be ok to throw...

No....not so much.

 I liked him a bunch....he had a sense of humor, joked about how they love poking around in people's hearts...how it is like playing a really boring video game, but he also did not down play that is serious, after all, it is heart surgery...the last thing he said to me was, "If you were my sister, I'd tell you to get this done."


6 weeks to heal a broken heart...what a thought....