8 Comments
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Brenda's avatar

No! Not you! This is severely unfair, and I demand to speak to the manager :( I hope you start feeling better and I hope you will undauntingly keep writing. Your unique voice is needed here.

Kathleen Rooney's avatar

You're always writing great stuff, but this was riveting! Partly, because, at 86 and having had a very weird "episode" similar to yours, but not specific enough to be named, I was living every moment with you.

Only after a few days was I able to see the humor in a body that rebelled and a mind that suggested I do foolish things. I was like a toddler operating in a grown-up world.

Heal well.

Markdrummer's avatar

David, Bean here, perhaps the docs can check your heart for patent foramen ovale, a hole in the heart wall separating the two chambers.

The discovery of this congenital thing explained my two mini-strokes. Clots travel thru to the brain. Then, ZAP. Get well David.

Chris Sand's avatar

The Land of Funny Business, indeed!

⚡️🛸🍄🛸⚡️

John R. Christiansen's avatar

Argh! Good luck to you. Becoming a medical object is damn hard and a sense of humor is necessary.

I had the dubious thrill of six nights at St. Pete's anticipating having my chest cracked open and my heart manhandled to fix a couple clogged arteries last summer. Good odds of survival without complications, I was told. Not totally reassuring as I read, listened to music (Dead & Company was a little too on point) and sometimes slept. My rather Goth daughter and I bonded over this being the "blood chicken" (cf. Viking blood eagle) procedure, dark humor nobody else in the family laughed at.

Literally at the last minute, after I was fully shaved and swabbed and stoned-out on the way from pre-op to the operating theater the cardiologist appeared to say they needed to double-check some readings. Turned out stents were the solution instead, and that the planned bypass surgery would have been a debilitating mistake. So, no chest invasion; all dressed up and no place to go, but a bullet dodged.

If you're interested here's my take on visiting St. Pete's in the buildup to last summer: II. Beam Me Up, McCoy - by John R. Christiansen https://share.google/p2mq9BqrbACqcCQit

And thanks very much for a well-written piece. I appreciate your work!

Robert Basil's avatar

David, Sending love and good vibes your way. What a scary thing. Onward and upward for you!! - Bob

David Scherer Water's avatar

Laura, yes, please. This really made my day. THANK YOU.

Laura the Bruce's avatar

Very happy you have survived your hospital adventure and can still write about it. I just discovered you and would like more access to your unique way of looking at the world. I often wonder why life has to be so mysterious, but that's just how the game is rigged. I love the way your mind works and your way with words and I live in Tumwater. Perhaps you and your GF and I could meet for coffee someday. Rockon, Sir!