Heart of My Heart

I tend to be less forthcoming about my health issues but BBBH has plastered my "condition" all over her facebook page, so I might as well open up.

An earlier exception to my reticence was published here four years ago when I had the corneal tissue transplant because that is an interesting and relatively rare surgery, and besides the readers might have gotten a good laugh at the pictures of the swollen and bandaged me. 

I have according to my cardiologist a very strong heart but a seriously occluded aortic valve as well as some arterial narrowing in the heart.  Surgery is the only remediation.

I got a call today from the office of the cardiovascular surgeon.  They will see me on December 22.  The good news in this is that I will likely not be admitted for surgery before Christmas.  The bad news is that I will likely not be admitted for surgery before Christmas.

Further good news is that JoAnn's facebook friends and relatives have flooded her notes with good wishes and more importantly promises of prayers for our well-being.  This is appreciated immensely, more than I can tell.

Having started this here, I shall feel compelled to keep you updated.

Photo by BBBH,Galaxy S4, unbeknownst to the subject until it appeared on fb.

Sometimes You Read the Darndest Things #T

I was doing a web search last evening, a search that had nothing whatsoever to do with school girls, surgeons, pins, rheumatism, or Pennsylvania when I happened upon this, from sixty-seven years ago.

Surgeon Removes 13 Headless Pins From Leg of School Girl

KIRKSVILLE, MO.  Dr. Paul R. Koogler, surgeon-in-chief at the hospital of Kirksville college of osteopathy and surgery, said he had removed 13 or 14 headless pins imbedded in a leg of Mary Serena Beach, high school junior, of Sigourney, Pa. Miss Beach registered at the hospital with symptoms of rheumatism. Pictures disclosed the pins, which the girl could not explain.

 Jeffersonian (Jeffersontown, Ky.), April 4, 1947

And sometimes you witness something just as weird.

It was, I think 1948 or about a year after the needled leg incident in Missouri.  This happened in Colorado.  Al, a lad of fourteen, was an attendee at a camp, escaping Kansas for a week or ten days in Colorado's scenic surroundings. 

Suddenly one evening he reported to a camp counselor with an extremely swollen hand and excruciating pain.  Clearly, a trip to the emergency room at the local hospital was required.  The surgeon ascertained that some foreign object was embedded in the flesh at the base of the thumb.  The offending intruder was surgically removed and proved to be the tip of a pair of sewing scissors, perhaps an inch in length.  Now, how did that happen?

The boy told this tale.  Many months ago, nearly a year ago, in fact, he and his sister had gotten into a contretemps, the upshot of which was a stabbing inflicted to the hand by the sibling.  "We knew the scissors had broken, but we couldn't find the missing piece."

Nasty, rusty thing.  Successful treatment for the infection, though, and the wound eventually healed.