Look out world, here She comes!

Posted by Photonstopper on December 9, 2009
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I walked into her hospital room tonight to discover two doctors talking with her. So, straight from the doctors' mouths… She Who Must be Obeyed is to be discharged tomorrow morning!

She is a bit feeble still, but able to walk steadily for short distances without assistance. We'll get details about post-discharge medications, suggested exercise, limitations, upon discharge.

I think She should stay home and out of sight: Her neck is all bruised and has puncture marks; her arms look that way, too. I might be accused of spousal abuse! Hmmmmm…. it is turtleneck sweater weather!

Her heart may not be bionic but it has been rebuilt so, look out world, here she comes!

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You’ve gotta have heart…

Posted by Photonstopper on December 7, 2009
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Sitting in the Heart Center's Au Bon Pain 24-hour restaurant for a late dinner the other night, I was aware of the Christmas holiday background music playing. I found it both ironical and darkly amusing that just before leaving I heard someone singing, All I Want for Christmas is Your Heart.

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Surgery successful

Posted by Photonstopper on December 5, 2009
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I don't have a time when the surgery was completed but at 3:30 Friday, She was in the CVICU, still intubated, and sleeping.

Dr. Gillinov was able to use minimally-invasive ("robotic") techniques and repaired, rather than replaced, the failed valve. It was a long surgery, even Dr. said it was long, and had me worried by the end but the approach and the results appear to be worth the extra effort.

Gillinov first repaired the mitral valve which, on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the worst for the amount of leakage, rated a "4." He "removed the defective piece of the valve and placed a cloth ring around the circumference — like a washer" to effect repair. Post-op, the valve's rating is now a "1," considered normal for a healthy person.

The tricuspid valve also warranted some attention, rating a "3" on the scale. It had apparently been damaged by forces generated by the failed mitral. He applied a ring as part of that repair.

I've yet to be briefed by hospital staff but her life ahead should be good and long with her heart restored to normal function without the issues involved with synthetic or natural valve replacements.

Because the surgery was less invasive, She spent the night in CVICU, was expected to move to the "Step-Down" unit (more of a regular hospital room) later today. She should be discharged next week perhaps as early as Tuesday. Since her sternum is intact (thanks to the technique used) I expect she will recover much faster than we feared going in and She should return to her normal activities very soon.

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It’s “on” for Friday

Posted by Photonstopper on December 4, 2009
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The mitral valve surgery has been scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, Dec. 4.

The surgeon is A. Marc Gillinov, MD who met with She Who Must Be Obeyed this evening. She said there was a good conversation and felt a good connection with him.

Gillinov told her he fully expected to be able to repair the valve — something others had led us to believe was improbable. He said that in the unlikely event that the valve needed to be replaced after all, he would advise biologic tissue over artificial valve; the reason being that, though it would last only about 10 years, he expected there would be superior alternatives a decade from now. So we're hoping for repair, will get biological tissue if needed, and much of what we've been led to believe up to now has been reversed!

The surgeon also told She that he would not make a decision about "traditional" vs. robotic surgical technique until the operation actually begins. A bit surprising, again, but he's the doctor, and apparently a darned good one! We think She will be in very good hands.

For her part, She says she's not worried at all and was in excellent spirits tonight. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if she was dressed in her civvies and you were talking with her you'd never even know she was in ill health.

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Cath fine, gift problem

Posted by Photonstopper on December 2, 2009
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The catheterization went fine. She Who Must Be Obeyed was unconscious for the entire procedure and that was okay by her! The most painful part of the whole thing was they had trouble setting an IV and tried several times in several vein areas; she's sore and bruised all over her arms and hands! Yikes!

The findings are that the heart's artery pressures/cyclical changes are good indicating the valves are also good. Coronary arteries are clean and clear. The mitral valve is the single culprit — one doctor not giving any clues; the other doctor that spoke with us kind of let slip that the valve simply wasn't working (was "wide open") and that replacement, not repair, is near certain. I believe I was told the left ventricle is enlarged –not good– and caused by the valve failure and congestion and that they'll be monitoring that post-op hoping to see improvement. We'll see what the surgical team comes up with. Hypertension was ruled out as the root cause — one doc simply saying She doesn't have hypertension. Real reason for the bad valve isn't known but that it was likely in slow decline and just hit a tipping point triggering this crisis. She's supposed to get another sonogram today. It's now considered a bit optimistic to expect surgery will be tomorrow and it certainly hasn't been scheduled as yet. I may or may not get more information this afternoon during or after surgical rounds.

The Eee-PC was warmly welcomed, but… I set it up, even used it in the waiting room today. There's Wi-Fi on the patient floors in the satellite waiting rooms but apparently NOT in her room just a short distance away. I'm terribly disappointed — she was giddy about the netbook until we couldn't get online in her room! If they let her get out of bed tonight (recovering from catheterization for six hours) I'll be happy to get an email from her. Hopefully her surgical recovery room will have wireless access since she'll be there for several days. In the mean time, it's something new and she can keep her mind occupied playing with it.

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A nice little gift

Posted by Photonstopper on December 2, 2009
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Asus Eee-PC 1005HAB
Asus Eee-PC 1005HAB

Sometimes it seems like everything's been going pretty well. Then reality shows up to slap you around.

She Who Must Be Obeyed is in hospital as I write this. Over the last week what appeared to She and I as effects of a cold turned out to be among of the symptoms of congestive heart failure.

She's hard to get to the doctors' and by the time she finally did, she was completely out of breath simply walking up stairs. This from a woman who walked miles with me this summer and previously was a recreational cyclist champing at the bit to go-go-go!

An explanation I heard from a physician's assistant who did her emergency room workup: chronic hypertension strained the mitral heart valve which produced the situation. On emergency room examination, her systolic and diastolic blood pressure numbers were triple-digit, something like 150/125. It's a wonder she didn't stroke out right there! In retrospect the symptoms I observed over the weekend along with those uncovered by medical tests and those She finally disclosed were all checklist matches for congestive heart failure … including that oh-so-obvious hacking cough that kept us both awake at night.

So today She, resting at hospital in improved condition, will get a heart catheterization so surgeons can determine the condition of the arteries and what sort of damage the valve(s) has suffered. Then, perhaps as early as tomorrow, it's major surgery for either valve repair or replacement. Sometimes, heck, often I'd love to put a good bit of distance between me and Cleveland, Ohio. Times like this, however, make me a little happier to be near… She is being treated at the world-renowned, prestigious and expensive Cleveland Clinic Heart Center. Having excellent medical insurance is a very good thing — I won't have to wind up stealing food from our cat when all is said and done. Not having access to treatment of this caliber? Well, you can probably tell where I'd come down on the national health coverage debate.

Though She has a phone in the room, She's been feeling completely out of contact without email. To help her with what will quickly become a boring stay and to put her back in touch, I picked out an "early Christmas gift." After visiting her last night I stopped in at a nearby Best Buy store and purchased an Asus Eee-PC "netbook" — miniature notebook computer. She'll get to use it today and then, depending upon when surgery takes place, go "offline" for a day or two. During her five days or so in hospital for recovery, I'm certain she'll get some good use out of the sweet little Eee-PC; I know I've had fun setting it up for her.

Heart surgery? A heck of a way to earn a nice little gift!

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Just part of my modern life

Posted by Photonstopper on November 25, 2009
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Windows7
Windows7

Last night, instead of vegging out and watching TV, I embarked on a great adventure: upgrading my main computer from Windows XP to Windows 7. When I bought that machine, Windows Vista had just come out and had a bad reputation — deserved or not. So I opted for a Dell Optiplex that was "Vista Capable" but came with XP installed. I still believe that was a wise move. Since then I've used Vista a lot and have purchased dozens of new Vista PCs for work and Vista's pretty darned good. I was eager, however, to try Windows 7 and, once I installed it on my notebook and saw performance skyrocket, I was well and truly sold.

So I pushed out the last work I needed from Apollo (my desktop computer) Monday. Last night I began the process and, as with the notebook, after telling the installer program that I wanted a "Custom" installation (the only choice with XP) and which hard drive to use, I pretty much did other things. At the end, I had a beautiful Win7 desktop, a few of my familiar desktop shortcuts, and a lot of reinstallation work ahead of me — most of it yet to do. Yes, I'm already loving the Win7 experience. I went to bed with the upgraded machine busily synchronizing data between itself and the remote backup system.

The only sort of "gotcha" I encountered was that the Windows Easy Transfer* I ran in XP copied the wrong user profile. It wasn't the program's fault –there's always been something strange about the way my XP handled my profile– and I've been able to recover what might otherwise have been lost. The XP strangeness? I'd log in on Apollo using the same username I have at the office, let's say it's james01. Login would go fine, I'd do my work, and shut down. Next time I'd log in the username would appear in the login screen as, say, jamesG. It would accept the james01 password and all would be well. I still don't understand what was going on there but discovered there were, in fact, two user profiles: the one I thought I was using and the one I was actually using and I had Easy Transfer copy out the profile I thought I was using.

Happily for me, I'm in the habit of not using my profile's default location(s) –My Documents– as the place for saving most of my stuff. Also happily for me, the upgrade process packed up the Windows XP installation in a big ball called "Windows.old" which preserved all profiles; I've, so far, been able to recover necessities such as Thunderbird email files from that ball. There's also the twin fall-backs of a local external hard drive backup and Mozy remote backup. Whew!

Over the next few days I'll casually reinstall the software I commonly use (Photoshop, camera software, InDesign, and the like) and before you know it I'll have a nice new computer.

I guess that's just part of my modern life.

* Windows Easy Transfer really is a great free tool for this "new computer" thing. The program can be used in several different ways to perform the sometimes-daunting task of "moving your stuff." Users need to think a bit ahead and install the Easy Transfer software on their older computer and figure out which of three approaches get the Transfer file on to the "new" computer — whether it be a different machine or the same machine post-upgrade. Windows 7 has Easy Transfer already installed.

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