I LEFT MY HEART ON THE TABLE!

The evening before the big operation for my by-pass, the surgeon came to my room about 8:30 PM. An Indian doctor about his late 30’s, he assured me he had done this before and I shouldn’t worry about anything. He stated that they would come for me about 7:00 AM to begin the procedure and that I should try to get a good night’s sleep. He explained the process to me, and I wished TLW were here to hear it so that I could have someone to talk to. I had asked her to go home since she was with me all day long and looked very tired.

I knew that people didn’t always survive these things but chances were good that I would and figured that I needed to sleep, and not worry about something that was out of my hands. I also figured that what was the point of worrying when there were only two outcomes. One, I could die on the operating table, and all I did before I died was worry, that seemed stupid to me, and second was that I would survive and have worried for nothing.

I had a sandwich of tuna fish because I hadn’t eaten all day from when I got up to go to the hospital in the early hours of the morning. Made a few calls and said a prayer that TLW was home safely after a long tiring and I’m sure exhausting day because of me. Then I called her to make sure, closed the light and went to sleep.

When I awoke, there she was, like old faithful, standing over the bed as the nurses had come in to prep me for the operation and wheel me out to the operating room. I was wheeled into the room where a mask was put over my face, as not to scare the surgeon I would imagine, and the next thing I remember was waking up and seeing TLW, and of all people #1 Son from California standing over the foot of the bed in the recovery room. Two male nurses were leaning over me, talking to me and asking me something, and all I wanted to do was kid the family, so I asked if it was a boy or a girl? Suddenly they pulled a tube out of my mouth and I could see my wonderful niece Laurie and her Mother, my older sister Theresa standing there, and I started to feel happy that they were there. I had a double by-pass, and the surgeon said they would have performed a triple except one of the blockages was now making a new opening! At that point, I noticed the sound of the overhead monitors and a little head peeking over my feet, as I said “MOM!”

They had actually taken my heart out of my chest!

WHAT!

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