Sanjay Sharma does not open the bowling for the Indian
cricket team. He is a cardiothoracic surgeon. What he does do is open up chest
cavities to repair broken hearts. He is my cardiothoracic surgeon and hopefully
he will be repairing my broken heart on Thursday, January 22nd,
2015. Actually, he told me my heart is quite strong, it is the clogged up
arteries that are the problem that the bypass will fix up. Sounds good to me.
The major downside is that Lesley and I were booked in for a
week at Rottnest Island from January 17th. Obviously we have had to
cancel that holiday, so for the first time in many, many years we will not be
enjoying our summer in the sunshine and surf at beautiful Rottnest.
Richard Tauber used to sing about “My heart and I” and now
it is my turn. My heart and I have been together for over 70 years. I have
always appreciated that it kept on beating away so that I could get to do the
things that I was doing. In fact it began beating away several months before I
was even born, just so that I could make my way into the world on that
Christmas Eve so many years ago.
Now my heart is struggling because an angiogram reveals that
my three heart arteries are clogged 95%, 80% and 20 % respectively. That means
I am only getting about 30% of my normal blood supply. Dr Sharma says he will
give me a quadruple by-pass to get blood flowing back into my hard working
heart. Thank you, my beating heart, for keeping up the good work while on such
severe blood supply rations. I am very proud of you.
Dr Sharma told me that a quadruple by-pass is a “Bill
Clinton” by-pass in honour of the former US President’s heart surgery a few
years ago. Well that may be so, but let me tell you right now I do not
know and have never even met Monica Lewinsky.
At my meeting with Doctor Sharma, he told me that a heart
bypass would be very beneficial for me whereas, to do nothing would almost
certainly result in a very unfortunate outcome within a few months.
I had a heart attack in March, 1993, almost 22 years ago. An
angiogram at that time showed my arteries were clogged up and I asked when I
was going to have by-pass surgery. However, because I had not had any pain
since my attack and had passed a cycling stress test with flying colours the
doctors decided to treat my heart condition with medication, diet and exercise,
namely a lot of walking.
This turned out to be pretty good advice as it gave me
more than 21 years of pain free living.
Dr Sharma, after examining my angiogram results told me that
in fact my body had given me a natural by-pass and blood vessels had found their
way around a clogged artery to increase my blood flow. Unfortunately, where
this natural by-pass hooked in to an artery was just below where a 95% blockage
had developed, hence the onset of my pain in mid November, 2014.
He also told me that there were a few risks associated with
bypass surgery, but that the risk was only about 1%. I was very happy to hear
this. Then he mentioned that the risk increases if you have diabetes or
hypertension. Hello! I have both of those medical conditions.
Dr Sharma explained that the three likely outcomes of a
heart bypass are:
1.
You die on the table.
2.
You have a stroke.
3.
The operation is successful and after a month of
recovery you enjoy life without pain and with much more energy.
I am not worried about the results of this operation. Why worry about
something you cannot do anything about? It is in God’s hands and I am quite
happy with that. God has been very good to me in my lifetime. If I die, well,
apart from the short term sorrow it would cause my family and friends, I cannot
complain. I have had a great life with the family I was born into and the one
that Lesley and I created. I have great friends and work colleagues. Above all,
I have enjoyed a beautiful life with my lovely Lesley. However, I am confident
that Dr Sharma will do a first class job and, after my recovery period, I look
forward to enjoying what is left of the summer and getting on with my life.
Maybe even a trip to Rottnest later this year.
If I do, you will read about it here.
