When I had my tetralogy surgery in 1966 they told
me afterwards that I was good to go. And that while
I might not be running any marathons that I could
expect to live a fairly normal, healthy life.
Over the past few years I have discovered that view
was an overly optimistic one. While they certainly
did take care of a number of problems with my heart
back then, that was by no means the whole of it.
There were and are number of problems with my heart
that they just couldn't fix back then, or that they
didn't even know about.
The most significant residual problem with my heart
has been a severe narrowing of the pulmonary artery
and associated valve. Both the artery and valve have
been less than one-half the diameter they would be in
a normal adult. As a result there was a severe backflow
of blood into my right ventricle — what cardiologist
call "regurgitation." It was the strain of this backflow
that unbalanced my heart — so the left side of the
heart had to work that much harder to balance the
deficiency of the right side, which in the long term
led to Congestive Heart Failure.
Along with that I've learned one other interesting
fact that I never was aware of: Evidently the artery
leading into my left lung is only ten percent of the
normal diameter. In fact the artery was pumping so
little blood into the lung that I have been in effect
operating with only one lung my entire life. When
Dr. Garabedian did my stent/valve procedure last
March he told me that due to anatomical problems
dealing with that left lung artery and the insertion
of my new stent that he had been forced to make the
difficult decision of blocking the left lung artery
entirely, no blood flow. But given that the artery
was only working at ten percent anyway it doesn't
change things much. It was a good decision on his
part. There might be a possibility that somewhere
down the line Dr. Garabedian will be able to widen
that left artery and reopen the lung. But they don't
know for sure yet — they are sort of moving around
in the dark here with a flashlight, just as Effler was
so many years ago.
But of course the news was very surprising. Only one
lung my whole life long, and I never knew.
I hold no grudge against Dr. Effler or his team.
What they did back in 1966 was brilliant, cutting
edge stuff that saved my life and paved the way
for much work in the future. Finding out all this
new information about my residual problems didn't
exactly rock my world. I realize that there are
definite limitations on knowledge, and that at any
one point what we know is always far less than what
we don't know. But to have gone through four decades
thinking that a particular state of affairs existed
— good health — and then to find out that was not
at all the case is rather disconcerting.
And so there are all the recent fixes by my doctors.
Most likely coming up in the next few months, maybe
late summer, will be another operation. Dr. Garabedian
wants to go in again and put in the larger diameter
stent that he was a little leery of putting in last March.
Coming out of the Cleveland Clinic in 1966 they were
playing "Summer in the City" by the Lovin' Spoonful.
And for a number of years that song became a kind of
anthem for me. So what would my anthem be now, sitting
here with a new pacemaker and pulmonary stent and a
valve that came from a cow?
Chopin, Nocturne in D-flat Op. 27 No. 2
Up into the stars — but not quite yet.
🙂
musickna said:
Great song. Fascinating post, Ed. I'm so glad medical science has been developing as well as it has to keep you going. One lung, hey? Take care of it, Ed. 😀
CultureSurfer said:
So sorry you've had to deal with all of this. :awww:
Stardancer said:
I'm glad you're here, Edward.:heart:
Pineas2 said:
:up:
Aqualion said:
I like the way you keep us updated on the progress. It makes me smile a warm-at-heart smile. As you know my late father had similar problems with the heart and arterie system, got a new valve too. He lived to be 88, you know. No reason to go Nietzsche on this one. 😉
edwardpiercy said:
Sorry I am a bit tardy on the comments but I was in Idaho yesterday.@ Richard.@ Martin.Thanks to you both. Writing has helped me to get through a lot in life. And just putting all this down for the record helps. @ Naomi.I think of myself, as Natalie Merchant said, as blessed and lucky. 🙂 Although I'm not exactly thrilled at the prospect of them going into my chest again. That last one was a lot more tough than I had thought it would be.@ Star.:heart:@ Pineas.Thanks to you also. :up:
gdare said:
They did amazing job back in 1966. considering the overall knowledge about heart. And, as Star said, it is good to see you here, now, so many years later. Keep on going!!!
Aqualion said:
Some days ago I saw David Cameron and Barack Obama waving edged weapons at each other wearing apron and tie. Guess what I'm trying to say is, that you could easily go for President. Start planning a campaign and set out for the greastest of goals. Soon they will find a way to make you breath a lot better by fixing you again.
edwardpiercy said:
@ Darko.Yes, it is amazing what they did, and also how far they've come since then. Creation over Destruction — that's how the world should be.@ Martin.I wouldn't want to be President. If you are President you have to deal with politics. And I don't want to deal with politics. I wouldn't mind the money, that would be nice I suppose. But the hours are terrible — being woken up at all hours of the morning for some crisis in some other country and such. I like getting a good night's sleep. I probably would like the free airplane rides too. But there again there's a cost — you have to visit all sorts of places that you don't want to visit and and smile and pretend you really do want to visit them. Do I want to visit Brazil or Korea or Madagascar? Not really.