Home Again

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I would like to say Thank You to everyone who left well wishes and words of encouragement while I was gone.

It would be an understatement to say this has been an ordeal and it ain’t over yet by a longshot.

But I did well enough to get out of the hospital in 3 days like I told the doctor instead of the 3-5 which she kept insisting on.

The hospital staff was top notch, the food was awesome and I was treated very well.

Now I have this gnarly incision I have to heal up from.

The procedure didn’t go as planned which is no surprise.

The right side was simple and easy, the left side turned into a bit of a nightmare.

She did a “Poke” with a big syringe and threaded a wire through on the right side with a balloon and a stent on it. She inflated the balloon about half way up to clear some blockage, again at the top and then installed the stent on the right side. The left side, she made an incision, tried to poke through the blockage and it wouldn’t go.

She tried to go up and around back through the right side but no luck. The blockage on the left was solid calcium basically like concrete.

She wound up cutting it open more at the fold in my leg and digging out half of the blockage. She said that there was a normally small artery that had tripled in size that was trying to go around the blockage but that only a trickle of blood was getting through. She cleaned out to the point that the artery was dumping into the Femoral and bypassing the upper half of the blockage where she had wanted to put the other stent.

It was a 5 hour surgery and to try and dig out the upper half would have meant making the incision go clear up into my abdomen which was not good so she called it when she got it cleaned out as good as she could. She said it was as big around as a felt pen and about 3 1/2 inches long that she dug out.

It is what it is. There is definitely more blood flowing and she had a little machine with a small microphone and a speaker that she could stick the microphone right on some small arteries in both feet and hear the blood flowing through that she couldn’t hear before the procedure.

I won’t know how much my total condition will improve for some time until this big incision heals up and I can do some walking to judge distance and pain.

I did 2 laps around the floor of the hospital today about 2 hours apart and that was good enough to get me discharged. I still have several other arteries that are completely blocked but this was the only option for treatment at this time.

I’ll take what I can get and I am grateful for that.

So once again I would like to say thanks for the concern and well wishes. It’s going to be a couple of weeks for this to heal up but I have some decent pain medication and now the Wifely Unit can tell me to quit doing everything I try instead of the cute little Nurse Ratchet I had. She was awesome and had an attitude so we battled from the first meeting.

We parted happy to have met each other with mutual respect and I sang her praise to my doctor too.

I heard one nurse tell her that I was the best patient on the whole floor shortly after we met so it just goes to show I can be a nice guy when I want to be.

I just got home a few minutes ago so I am going to take some pain medication and kick back for a while.

I’ll spare ya the pictures, at one point I thought it looked like someone was practicing sex changes on me.

It’s pretty gnarly.

Y’all take care.

Oh, one more thing,

Thanks CederQ, for keeping the joint open while I was gone.

47 thoughts on “Home Again”

  2. Glad to hear you’re home. I’ve spent too much time in the hospital with too many surgeries [all successful] and the best time is just getting back to the comfort of home even when you’re hurting.

  3. You are quite welcome Phil. Glad and prayerful you are home and are doing well so far. Tomorrow you get out in your garage and start in on it…

  4. Sounds like a good outcome, maybe not as much as hoped for, but any improvement in blood flow sounds like a win. Hope your recovery goes well.

    I hope you can stay off the smokes. Like Red Green says, we’re all pullin’ for ya!

  5. Frankly, Phil, you deserve it. All the breaks, and everybody pulling for ya!!
    A nod to CederQ as well. (Don’t get a swelled head, Kevin.)

  9. I have seen a picture of the surgical wound, it is gnarly, one of the gnarlyist wounds I have ever seen… I was even slightly repulsed by it and that is a major gnarly if I say it. I have experienced some horrific injuries and wounds.

  10. now is the time to rest up and heal. anyway, chicks dig scars. to a point anyway.
    so, take it easy. do just enough to get better and not hurt your ass.
    stay away from day time TV, it will drive you insane in no time.

  11. Great news. Welcome back and I’m glad for the successes. Take the R&R and give yourself time to recover.

  12. Glad to hear things went fairly well. While not everything we had hoped for, any improvement is good news.
    Now, like the others have said; don’t be a knot head and do shit you shouldn’t. Get rested and healed up. The rest of it can friggin’ wait.

    Good on ya, Bud.
    Be well.

    Leigh
    Whitehall, NY

  14. Praise and thanks be to God for success and recovery. Now, if you can refrain from mainlining concrete our hope will be justified.

  15. Good to have you back – Hope the rest & recovery goes well and you can soon get back out to your workshop – the Sprite will still be there, waiting for you

  16. HoHoHo! Your best Christmas present didn’t come down the chimney! Now you’re fully under the power of the WU you’d better behave yourself . . .

  17. Now that you got some downtime, get a book called The Magnesium Miracle. It’s about $15 on Amazon. Pay very close attention to the part about Magnesium regulating excess Calcium. Insufficient magnesium causes calcium to be stored in soft tissues like arteries. You heard of “hardening of the arteries” I’m sure. Magnesium fixes this. Nearly every American is deficient in magnesium because our food is deficient. If your blockages are calcium based, magnesium can truly be a miracle.

    I’m glad you’re doing well. Your blog is top notch. Merry Christmas.

    • That and K2 will keep the calcium circulating in your blood instead of depositing on your blood vessel walls. My brother rubs on magnesium oil as a supplement to control arrhythmia because he doesn’t absorb magnesium through his gut.

      • Research the many types of Mg available. Some are not well absorbed. Others are very well absorbed like Mg chloride, Mg citrate and a few others. Weekly Epsom salt baths are excellent for arrhythmia. Check the book I mentioned above.

  19. Great to hear that you’re at home. Rest. Things will heal up faster with rest. Give the recliner a good workout.

  21. Welcome back. Can I assume the Dr gave you some advice you didn’t like about keeping that repair going for a while?

    The human body is a well-designed biological machine that self-repairs constantly.

    Sometimes the repair goes awry into cancer but more often than not keeps fixing little problems most of our lives without us knowing aside from sore muscles and joints.

  22. Now Phil, don’t go startin ta build up a GOOD reputation you will loose all that street cred.

    In all seriousness glad your back home where it’s safe and you can rest, and get to sleep in your own bed. Take care brother.

  24. It’s a good Christmas for you and yours. I’m glad things went well, even with the challenge. Be grateful, heal up & get ready for the New Year. I hear it’s going to be a humdinger.

  25. A cute Nurse Ratched? didn’t think that was possible.

    Good to know you are better, don’t skimp on relaxing, even that will be difficult. Healing needs time. Or something like that.

      • Way, way out there…
        But seriously, we’ve had you and Phil in our prayers since we became aware of the medical issues.

        We (wife and I) have been doing K-2, magnesium, etc. for a while now. I’ve got my own blockages they couldn’t get through to stent (CFX and RCA). Hoping for some benefit from the supplements.

        • Get the book I mentioned up thread. With Mg you need a “saturation dose” daily…for life. First symptom of OD for Mg is loose stool. Build up slowly to that point. When achieved, back off by half a dose. Then monitor and back off as needed. The book touches on it but research which forms of Mg are best for absorption. Some are not well tolerated like Mg oxide. Epsom salt baths several times a week are excellent as well.
          Merry Christmas.

  26. I’ve had a few major surgeries and while recuperating had the chance to observe how other patients treated the Hospital staff, and am amazed that people don’t always treat them with the respect they deserve. It is good to see that you are on the good side of human nature. Glad it all worked out and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

  28. Glad you are home safe. I’m sure you will be back to your overachieving self before you know it. I had a “teeny” heart attack last April and they put 2 stents in. The cardiologist told me, “Walk or die.” I’m up to 3 miles a day and have lost 55 pounds. Good luck and God speed on your recovery.

  30. Godspeed in your healing, Phil. Nicotine pouches are a good substitute for cancer sticks. All the best, and Merry Christmas.

  31. Hoorah, you have some circulation in your feet and legs. Hang in there and give that incision time to heal before you indulge in any weight lifting. You and the Wifely Unit have a Merry Christmas. Oh, and not being an ass to the nursing staff pays dividends when they run physical therapy off because you need to rest.

  33. I knew the whole deal wasn’t a big hill for climber! lol
    Glad you made it and are up and moving, etc. Most people I have spoken with that has had procedures that promoted improved circulation said they felt better almost immediately and couldn’t believe the increased energy, etc.
    I hope the same for you Phil. Welcome back.

  36. May your healing process go very well, sounds like you had a great doctor. The advancement in medicine is astonishing. A hundred and twenty years ago the Wright bros flew a plane 800yards, today Mars is the quest. Medicine in the last forty years is the same. Forty years ago you would have bought the farm, now most diagnosis is thru the computer talking to a doctor. Great time to be alive and I’m glad you are, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

  37. Please be careful with this. My 89 year old mother has this too, and has had multiple stent procedures. She is not diabetic, but this calcium blocking the arteries has led to sores on her toes. That led to some of the sores going all the way to the bone. That led to infection in the bone in two of the toes. That led to toe/partial toe amputations last week. She is undergoing hyperbaric chamber treatments to try to help it all to heal. I hope you are fixed now.

  39. Home in time for Christmas with family and your many friends here on the site. Congrats on a successful surgery. Now do as you’re told and get better.

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