Update from Rog's Bedside

Rog is up and on his feet walking around abit, but he still has to take it very easy. So, blogging, being the intense activity it is, would be too tiring for him for now. Still, he can't bear to be away from his blog for too long. He thinks his blog and his fans will fall apart if they don't hear from him. (He doesn't believe me when I tell him his visitor count has increased since I started blogging - readers are wanting more of the super-talented Yvette). So he dictates an update which I have to type up verbatim:

DAY 4
Things I’ve learnt to hate about my surgery:
- Intubation tube
- Constant pain
- Numerous tubes hanging out of my body
- Complete loss of modesty (back-less hospital gown and wee-bottle)

Things I’ve learnt to enjoy:
- My fixed heart
- Topnotch care from excellent staff
- PCAM – patient controlled analgesia of morphine
- Pay TV – Lifestyle channel
- Love and support from my many world wide followers

Progress Reports

Yvette is still getting the hang of this blogging thing. In between hospital duties and catching up on beauty sleep, Yvette has been rather slack with updating the blog. She's not as addicted to blog as Rog is, mainly cos being a personal frenchnurse-maid is very time consuming. But she's nearly up there with him in terms of verbal blab.

Brief update: Rog is recovering extremely well. Everyday there are big improvements.

For the worldwide soap-opera followers of this blog who are interested in detailed accounts of Rog's recovery, Yvette will be backdating some new posts to keep a logical timeline. So when checking for updates this week, pls keep scrolling back to Monday 14 Nov - there may be new posts popping in between later posts you might have already seen.

ps thanks to no. 7 for such a pretty picture of yvette

Handsome Cardiologist

We saw Rog's handsome cardiologist today. The first time he walked past, he was bopping along to sounds from the trademark white earphones in his ears. Very hip - I wonder what's on his Ipod. The second time he walked past, we see him in time to wave to him. He stops to say hello.

We tell him Rog's surgery went well and his recovery is progressing along nicely. He is visibly relieved and pleased when he finds out the valve was repaired, not replaced. He tried to ring Rog on the day of the op, he says, but Rog had already gone into theatre. So he'll drop in to say hello on Friday.

For the few minutes we chatted, I sensed a genuine warmth and empathy. He was extremely nice, great body language and showed concern for Rog and his family too.

To be honest I was abit surprised. Rog had always liked his handsome cardiologist - confident in his ability and thought he was nice. Myself though had found handsome cardiologist's manner a tad abrupt for my liking. I certainly had no doubt about his ability. I'd pegged him as a high-energy, competent, Type-A personality kinda guy. But I had grumbled to Rog before about tiny nuances in his manner which made me not like him entirely.

Today after chatting to him, I changed my mind. He was so nice I could feel myself melting.

I think I prefer if he wasn't too nice. Handsome cardiologist + highly competent + great personality = lethal combination. He was making my heart flutter, if he continues being nice, I'd be needing a heart doctor myself in no time.

PS British HR professional who has requested I keep an eye out for cute doctors to send their way, sorry but his handsome cardiologist is married with kids. You might have to stick to your Scottish doctor for now...

The Phonecall

12:21pm The registrar rings. Rog's operation is over, he says. "We could repair his valve which is good for him. He is doing very well, he is back in ICU now." We can see him after one hour.

Thank God.

Thank you for all your support, well wishes and countless prayers.

Pre-dawn

Pre-dawn wake-ups are not exactly my forte, but I doubt I'll miss today's morning call. I want to check in on Rog around 6am and make sure he's all feather-dusted before he is sedated around 7am and wheeled into theater. Still, I'm not taking any chances. I set 3 alarms, staggered at five minute intervals. Backup in case of alarm clock malfunctions or if I snooze the alarms. I need not have worried. I now know how light sleepers feel.

When I get to the hospital slightly before 6am, I find Rog enjoying a cartoon alone. I had arrived before his parents did! Yay - brownie points for me.

Rog had woken up about 3am - so much for the sleeping tablet, watched numerous educational programs on cable's Lifestyle channel, had a bit of a shave (yeah, right!), had a final antiseptic wash and tucked himself into bed. He is calm and looking forward to getting that pesky mitral valve repaired.

The nurses come in to move him onto a wheelie-bed and give him some tablets to start the sedation. He will start to feel drowsy, they say, and when he does, just let him doze off and don't keep him talking. Not surprisingly, after the nurses leave, Rog continues chatting and tells his aunt how he fainted at work. Not that easy to shut him up. But soon, the chemicals take over his strong natural instinct to yabber on and he starts drifting off. Just when we think it's safe to leave, he grunts and opens his eyes and tries to talk again, but this time he is slurring. This continues on for abit. He'll start to snore, his mom will ask him "are you awake, Rog", and he'll groggily mumble yes. So we hang around for a few minutes, then we whisper 'see you later' and leave.

As Rog enters the blissful realm of unconsciousness, we are left with the stark reality of the morning that stretches ahead. We wait and we pray.

Conversations

Ingrid the nurse -
The nurse looking after Rog on the day he checked in, Ingrid, is not the stereotypically 'hot' nurse he was hoping for. She is certainly cute though. Better still, turns out Ingrid and Rog know each other. They used to catch the same school bus to (different) high schools years ago!

Alan the op buddy -
Alan checked into the room next to Rog. He'd brought along deer hunting photos to show Rog. They'll both be great support to each other in the coming week.

Russell the resident -
Russell kindly explained the op in more detail to us. He tells us Mr Fixit operates on all types of heart surgery, and he would be looking forward to performing Rog's relatively simple op - it'll be a walk in the park for him compared to other valve repair/replacement/multiple bypass combos. Mr Fixit will be assisted by a registrar who is a professor from India. The registrar is training to be accredited here. It's very reassuring to know that Rog's heart will be in the hands of such a highly qualifed team.

T-minus One Day and Waiting

The day before the op. The day Rog starts his stay at the hospital. We go to our favourite breakfast place and Rog orders his favourite eggs Benedict. He savours every mouthful, it's gonna be egg-less Benedict for the next three months. Back at home, we relax for abit, he gives the frenchmaid a few lastminute orders, and Yvette the photographer takes last photos of the soon-to-be-cut-open as yet scarless chest.

Rog wants to go for a walk as he'll be on his back for the most of next week or so, but the wet weather was not inviting. We stretch our legs in a department store instead, and do some last-minute pyjama shopping. Then at 2pm, we rock up to the Cardiothoracic Unit at Hotel Le Hospitale Royale.

"I have a reservation for today," Rog announces to the receptionist. Ok...he may be a seasoned traveller, but reservation? Somehow I don't think he should be confusing a hospital and a hotel. But at least he'll be getting more attention and care in this particular 'hotel'.

We check in to the room and poke around the different wall switches. A stethoscope's hanging on the wall. We wipe it down with medi-swabs and try to listen to his heart, but we can't hear the murmur. Maybe it's miraculously cured? Or maybe we don't know what to listen for...?

The rest of the afternoon passes with members of the cardiothoracic team trickling in to say hello and re-introduce themselves, so we meet everyone who will be working on/with him: nurse, resident, pharmacist, physiotherapist, Mr Fixit and his posse of registrar and resident, anaesthetist (this word is easier to spell than to say). The doctors say a quick 2-minute hello. I guess just so you know they know you are here and on their list. The others take his medical history, take blood and wee samples, ECG, BP, skin patch test (to make sure he's not allergic to iodine and sticky skin bandages), explain procedures for the next few days.

After a few hours, we've met everyone. We sit in the room, stare at the walls and start to count our toes. That's when we decide to escape.

Fast forward a couple more hours, we're back at the hospital. After watching some TV, I leave him with his sleeping tablet so he gets an early night.

New PJs

Being the Aussie bloke that he is, Rog doesn't have much in the way of proper pyjamas. Aside from a pair of blue spotty pjyama pants which he whips out in winter, it's usually just boxers or trackydacks. With his upcoming invalid status, he won't be dressing up. But daggy clothes won't cut it to lift his spirits though. Not only does he want to look his best for his nurses, he also has to be presentable for potential visitors. So it was time for some shopping and who else to the rescue, but the multi-talented Yvette.

My first port of call was my favourite pyjama person Peter Alexander, but unfortunately he didn't have much for guys in his latest catalogue. I surf, looking for sites selling funky boy pjs, but no luck. The only site I come across has blond men who could pass as porn stars modelling slinky satiny tiger striped pyjamas. Er, I don't think so. I sense a definite niche market opportunity here - online store selling normal looking comfy pjs for straight guys. Plan B - good old fashioned shopping at a real shop. An hour before we are due to be at the hospital we duck into a department store and 20 minutes later, come back out with three sets of pyjamas at absolute bargain prices.


Disclaimer: in no way did I influence Rog's shopping decisions (this time). He happily chose these himself. Carson from Queer Eye For The Straight Guy would be extremely proud. For anyone planning to visit, it'll certainly be worth the price of admission to see Rog in his new PJs.

World's Shortest Heart Surgery!

Checked into hospital at 2pm, met the surgeon, nurses, anaesthetist, and physio. Had an ECG taken, blood pressure etc. Checked out of the hospital at 5.15pm. I'm now back at home having dinner!

Yvette and I are laughing our heads off! We spent all afternoon in hospital, basically staring at the clock as time slowly passed by, completely bored out of our minds. After seeing all of the team, it was clear that the only thing left to do was eat dinner, shower and go to sleep. And it wasn't even 5pm! I couldn't bear to spend more time in my room with nothing to do, so I asked the nurse whether we could go out for a while - she talks to the resident and lets us know that we can go out until just before 8pm! Without another word, we're out the door in a flash, laughing all the way!

So i'm enjoying my last few hours of freedom before surgery in the comforts of home. This little distraction is the perfect pre-surgery medicine! :o)

See You All Soon!

Well it's the night before I check into hospital, so this is probably the last post I will personally make for the next week or so. However, Yvette will be making regular updates, which will be verbatim from my hospital bed. Thanks all for your kind wishes, and I can assure you that nothing as small as a minor heart problem will tear me away from my blog! :o)

Twin Telepathy

Like millions of other people around the world, I've often wondered how twin telepathy works. How is it that they often know what each other is thinking, even if they are miles apart? My mom's identical twin sister arrived today from overseas, and despite living so far apart for all of my life, they still manage to finish each other sentences, and it's general madness when they are together!

But tonight I think I have figured out their trick. We called my mother's parents, to let them know that everyone is ok. We call, and I chat to my grandfather for a minute, and then he goes to get my grandmother. We decide that it would be nice to use two handsets so that we can semi-conference call, so while my aunty has one handset, my mom goes to get the other. They meet in the hallway, and start asking each other if they can hear them, but they're standing like next to each other. One asks the other, and the other says yes, and so they start chatting to each other, through the handsets! After a little while my aunty asks why are they talking with the handsets when there's really no need. But they continue talking none the less. An extremely comical series of events! Maybe this is the twin telepathy trick?

Information Folder

The Heartbeat association of volunteers have provided me with a folder of information for heart surgery. It contains booklets about heart surgery, the surgery team, information about the heart and such, and a booklet about rehabilitation. Two things of note:

The first page I turn to is headed "When will I be able to resume sexual activity?". It seems that it will be four weeks until heart surgery patients can resume such activities, and even then the behaviour has to be modified. Quite simply, foreplay is out, and the patient is reduced to lying on their back. My cousin is an occupational therapist, and during lunch she tells me that one of her major jobs is helping people resume sexual activity - and confirms that this basically involves informing older people about sexual positions, level of activity etc. My poor cuz! haha

The other thing I learn from the information booklets is that the expected duration of hospital stay is 4-8 days. The begs the challenge - can I recover and get out of hospital 4 days after surgery? I float the idea with a few people, who aren't particularly receptive. They all recommend very strongly that I take it easy. As if i'm not going to, it's my heart we're talking about after all! Having said all of that, I decide that taking necessary care and rest, I am going to try and be back at home in 4 days!

Antiseptic Bathing

Part of the instructions that I received during the pre-operation preparation was that I need to shower with a special antiseptic soap the day prior to going into hospital. The soap actually comes with some instructions. Basically the key areas that require special washing are nose, face, armpit, bellybutton, groin and bum. It is highlighted several times that special attention should be paid to folds of skin - at least I don't have any of those around my tum tum.

It's not surprising that we have lots of germs growing in these areas, but i'm wondering just how effective this bodywash is? I'm debating whether I should be showering three or four times a day, and just how far up my cavities I need to wash?

Obviously they are worried about infections, and they're trying to kill off potential sources of bugs. I notice myself picking my nose with my finger as I'm typing, looks like it's a bad habit that needs to stop while i'm in hospital! I'm also concerned, because I think I have something growing between my toes, so I douse my feet with the antispetic soap as well. And what about my visitors to hospital? I hope that they have some sort of anti-bug washing before they come to see me!

Things That I'll Miss

Given that I have an eight to ten week recovery period, there are some things that I am seriously going to miss. The first of these has a sleek, sexy body. Built for comfort and speed. Excellent handling, likes it a bit rough. Wonderful sound system, loud and grunty!


The other thing that I think I'll miss most is my little baby. I spend most of my day with her, and I can't keep my hands off her. She is very cute, and I take her everywhere.

Fun in the Sun

Had lunch with my cousin. Well actually she is really my dad's cousin, but she is younger than me! So we've always grown up being cousins. She has the biggest smile, and always makes me laugh! Drinking a glass of wine in the sun, its so nice to relax. Not having any real cousins nearby, she has become my surrogate cousin. We catch up now and then, go clubbing sometimes (although she is far crazier than even me!). She is so much fun!

She's got me a prez - it's Jamie Oliver's new book!! As part of the deal, I have to cook her a lunch or dinner. I think i'll be cooking her a few!


The book looks fantastic - lot's of nice photos of scrumptious looking food. But my cousin points out the best bit - cartoon animals showing where all of the different cuts of meat come from - such an excellent idea! We both declare we are not eating rump meat again!