Heart Bypass: Three Years Later (Part 2)

I have talked to several bypass survivors who remember little about their time in ICU. For someone who forgets way more than he should I remember way more than I would like to about my time in ICU. I Clearly remember waking up and thinking that at least I was alive. I had tubes coming from holes that weren't there a few hours ago. I love the term the doctors used for my time in ICU. They called it "uneventful." I guess to the doctors my case was pretty uneventful. I came off the respirator right on schedule. They yanked the catheter out with no problem, at least for them. My skin was put back together with super glue. I am sure there is a more proper name for the stuff, but trust me. It was super glue. Thankfully, there was only a relatively small incision where they harvested the vein from my leg. The pain level was manageable. I have had kidney stones and those little things are off the pain meter. If kidney stones are a 10, and they are, then bypass surgery is about a seven. The word that always comes to mind when trying to describe the pain of bypass surgery is the word "sore."

My surgeon came in and assured me that everything went well, and he was right. I guess you could call my surgery "textbook." There were no complications. Those would come later, some much later. At that point I don't recall anyone even mentioning depression. For the moment I was just glad that I was breathing on my on.