Re: [Paddlewise] Coronary bypass recovery

Chuck Holst wrote:

> On May 3 I had an unanticipated quadruple coronary bypass operation, which
> involved splitting the breastbone apart to get at the heart. During the
> wrap-up phase the surgeon stitched the breastbone back together with silver
> wire and glued the incision together. Until the bone knits (about six
> weeks), I'm not supposed to pick up, push, or pull more than five pounds,
> and I have to be care not to apply any differential pressure to the two
> sides of the chest when getting into and out of bed (no rotating from the
> waist!). Aside from that, I'm feeling pretty chipper. 
> 
> Has anyone on Paddlewise had a similar operation? If so, my wife would like
> to know how long it took before you were back in your kayak again. In my
> case the damage to the coronary arteries was discovered before there was any
> damage to the heart muscle, so I am anticipating pretty much a complete
> recovery.

You're in fairly good--well, at least notorious--company: Derek 
Hutchinson had a quad bypass in January and was teaching in mid-April, 
possibly before. He was making a big deal about it at the East Coast 
Festival, claiming he was wearing his PDF extra tight to be sure all the 
stitches held together. At one point he did a deep layback brace and sat 
up patting his chest to be sure he was in one piece. "Don't worry, 
Derek," I assured him, "at least your heart's in the right place."

Steve
-- 
Steve Cramer
Athens, GA
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