Death Cheaters

That's what doctors and nurses are.

My dad was, by all rights, a dead man walking. He had blockages of 100%, 95%, and 90%. He had atrial fibrillation which put him at great risk for a stroke. He had a very weak, slow heart rate. Really, it was amazing that he was alive, much less going to the grocery store, blowing leaves off the lawn, and volunteering at St. Joseph's Hospital across town from where they live -- all of which he'd done in the previous few days.

If he hadn't gone in last week with the mild chest pain he was having, he very well might have had a massive heart attack or stroke and died. But, he's alive and getting better today because of the cardiologists and heart rhythm doctors and cardio surgeons and the nurses and therapists and respiratory technicians and lab techs and all the rest of St. Francis Hospital.

They cheated Death out of his next victim, and we are all very grateful.

My dad is doing pretty well. Every day he has fewer lines and IV's and things attached to him, which is how I measure progress. I could tell today that he was a little bit stronger and looked a bit healthier than even just yesterday. So that's good.

He does have a little bit of ICU syndrome: seeing things that aren't there and sometimes being a little loopy. My favorite was when he asked, "Say, what's with those chickens and roosters dancing across the wall over there?" Whoa, dude, that's quite a hallucination!

Anyway, I explained to him about his eyes playing tricks on him due to the surgery and the meds, and he was OK with that. So the next time, he said, "Well, this may be my eyes playing tricks on me, but what's with that big black animal up on the top shelf over there?" "Well, Dad, let's hope that's your eyes playing tricks on you!"

Of course, it's not really his eyes playing tricks on him; it's his brain playing tricks on him. What an incredibly amazing and complicated thing the brain is. A little extra pressure from the heart-lung bypass machine during surgery, and the nerves in the brain start doing all kinds of wacky things. They call it "pump brain".

After spending so much time in the ICU, and seeing all the miraculous things they can do for really sick people, I started thinking, gee, maybe I would have enjoyed a career in medicine.

HA! Who am I kidding? I would alternately freak out and then be grossed out. I could never, never handle it.

But thank God that there are so many wonderful people who can handle it.