THE LONG ROAD BACK

This is a personal hub. It is about a life changing situation that takes place at almost the end of my working career. Without going into the finer details of my career, let me say I was a work acolholic. I worked day and night to earn the extra buck to feed my family as most people do and little did I know, a health problem was looming up inside me ready to take me to that big cafeteria in the sky and it was only sheer luck that I stumbled across it in time.

The last job of my career probably was the hardest to my body and it use to leave me drained everyday, so much in fact I woke up every morning dreading the day to come. Like most people I use to drag myself out of bed and face the day. My job consisted of delivering bundles of steel strengthening bars to building sites which I lumped on my back and large machinery that was unloaded by me without any help.

One morning after a really bad start I was booked by a parking officer who really did not know his job. It was time; I had enough without losing my day’s takings to the government for something that wasn’t my fault anyway.

I QUIT…………… Unknown to me, this was to be the luckiest day of my life because going to the doctor in the afternoon found an irregular heart beat that was the start of an investigation to my health that was to stagger me. Little did I know stumbling around building sites with steel on my back and pushing and shoving machinery that all the time my heart was enlarged and was not beating to its full potential? I was sixty two years of age at the time and quite frankly, if I had kept on going I would not be writing this hub today.

THE OPERATION

When I went to the specialist he decided to do an angiogram which entails inserting a camera through a small incision in your leg and feeding the tube up into the heart to see what was wrong. He was pretty sure that the heart was enlarged because of the hard work that I had been doing. When I arrived in the operating room they said it was no big deal and it would be over before I knew it and we would know for sure. I came out of the anesthetic to hear my doctor’s voice in my ear “Brian! Unfortunately you have a real problem with your heart. One of the main arteries to your heart is completely blocked and it is going to need an operation sooner than later so we are going to do a complete bypass with one of your veins from your leg. It will involve joining the vein to your heart artery and bypassing the blocked area completely. The operation is scheduled to be done in the next couple of days so you will be staying with us I’m afraid”

You know! We are all children inside and quite frankly we never grow up, we just experience more so on the morning of the operation, I found myself on a gurney heading for the operation. I didn’t know whether I would survive or not and when I was about to be put under with anesthetic I said the only prayer that meant a lot to me.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
Should I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

When slowly I came to there were tubes everywhere the main large thick ones down my throat and I started to realize that I was back and the nurse was saying “Brian! We want you to cough as hard as you can so we can pull the tubes out” .So in a daze I coughed as hard as I could and at the same time they pulled the large tubes from inside me leaving me to start the healing process by myself. They said that the operation had taken seven hours and it was a success. I am nearly sure that the operation was done in class because a lot of nurses came to me saying that I looked different in the ward area than I did on the operating table.

When it came time to eat, they gave me green jelly which I gulped down and threw up all over the nurse in charge. She wasn’t happy to say the least.

After five days in hospital it was time to leave for home to begin the long road back.

THE RECOVERY

Time has past and its now three years after the operation. Do I feel good? Yes I do. I FEEL GREAT.

Apart from a few hiccups that happened after surgery, I feel better than I have ever felt in my life.

After coming home from hospital after the operation, I was in the bathroom going to the toilet when all of a sudden I became giddy and I felt faint.

I collapsed on the bathroom floor and fell face down on my chest that had just been put back together.

Trying to get back up again was a real challenge. The pain coming from my chest area was terrible; every move I made put pressure on the rib cage that recently had been put back together.

I could not work out what to do. I lay on the floor for about ten minutes hoping like hell that I hadn’t broken anything and finally rolled over on my back and eventually sat up. My wife who was helpless in all this, found it a bit hard to try and lift me because I weighed twice the weight that she was, making it impossible to rescue me.

Everything was alright however, no broken bones or gashes to my head which could have happened as I fell to the floor.

I then started walking, a horrible sport made up by the people who know best, and I try to walk every day to help me progress back to good health. I will do this because the doctors went to a lot of trouble making me well again and even though I hate walking and get nothing from it, I will keep on going.

I have written this hub for everyone no matter who you are.

THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!

Have regular check up whether you are male or female. You may not be aware that your heart is in peril and if you don’t get it checked out just when you need it the most , IT MAY STOP!

Years ago while reporting on a collapsed mine in Tasmania, Richard Carlton died on the spot not aware that his heart which was in turmoil was going to let him down. He had already had a heart bypass and I THINK PERHAPS THE STRESS OF HIS JOB WAS TOO MUCH FOR HIM.

Perhaps mine like his may let me down as well, who knows. One thing for sure. I owe my life that I am having right now to the wonderful doctors that operated on me and I can’t thank them enough.

THIS HUB IS DEDICATED TO ALL THE OVER WORKED SURGEONS AND NURSES EVERY WHERE. THANK YOU FOR KEEP ON GOING GIVING EXTRA LIFE FOR THOSE IN NEED

Regards brownlickie

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