Post, uh, mortem on "living through it, after all!
Posted by John on 05/07/2007 16:59:22
The whole proecedure of the angiogram was a special and wonderful
experience. Along the way (through a couple of hours of preparations), I
was in a cubicle on a gurney next to another patient who was going on
through. They heard my questions to the medical technicians who were
wiring me up in this way and that. Several had had angiograms before,
and said it was a good experience. One is awake, and yet one is
completely oblivious to the surgical procedure that is going on. They
all had good experiences with this procedure, and I could tell they were
sharing this with me from the bottom of their hearts.
And I was comforted. Yet I couldn't fathom the description they had
given of the experience. How could I be awake (indeed practicing
awareness alot over these hours of preparations), and yet be completely
oblivious to a fellow human inserting a tube into a substantial blood
vessel at my groin, running it up through my body and into the very
chamber of my heart, while putting in chemicals showing the dance of all
the arteries and veins leading in and out of my heart.
Yet, after the procedure, I could see in my own experience what those
other patients had tried to get across to me. I was awake, and in a
blissful state. I remember the face of my surgeon before the proecedure
began, and that heartened me! And nothing after that. When it was over
I had a pain in my side where the tube went in, and orders not to jostle
or strain the area much—a wonderful wide-awake awareness exerecise that I
thoroughly enjoyed practicing for days, and still some, now.
Although I was told right away that the operation went well and no
problems were found with my heart, I just got the formal wording of it a
few hours ago, and I'm so glad to share with you that the finding was:
"heart, normal." I can exercise again, and go on from here. A follow-up
visit is scheduled for next week. A question still unanswered seems to
be what, precisely, is the meaning, if anything, of that weird showing I
came up with on the electrocarddiagram?
Anyway, thought somebody here might like to know.
John