By Elliott Brack
Editor and publisher, GwinnettForum
OCT. 5, 2018 | Many of you know that I like to travel to new lands. My most recent trip was only 16 miles in length, and for 10 days. The destination was Gwinnett Medical Center, where I successfully underwent bypass surgery on August 13.
Last week my surgeon, Dr. David Langford, pronounced me discharged, in remarkable shape, though he wanted me to maintain limited activity for another six weeks. The reason I’m writing this is to be something of a warning if others start to experience what I was finding about my body. Happily, I recognized something was amiss before I had to submit to emergency procedures.
Another trip, one to Germany for a river boat cruise and extension in July, led to this surgery. While on the trip, I found that when on shore excursions, or out walking for distances, I was experiencing a shortage of breath. At one time, returning from dinner in Bad Nauheim, Germany, I was going only about two park benches before I had to rest a while.
However, this shortage of breath was not entirely new. Previously, in walking my dog, Hercules, every morning, I was having to stop two or three times to catch my breath to reach the top of a low hill. And to show how the bypass made a difference, these days I can walk the total distance to the top of the hill without stopping or being winded at all. So, success!, though my strength has not fully returned as it should and by afternoon I am tired.
My hospital stay was longer than most bypasses, since the medical team detected an unusual aspect with my kidneys, and flushed them for five days before the surgery. But after the operation was over, there were no problems at all.
Now, you may not believe this (hard to do so for me), but at no time after the slitting my breastbone open about 10-12 inches, have I felt any pain at all! Miracle of miracles, in one way of thinking. Modern medicine has greatly improved its methods over the years, and here I am the beneficiary!
The nursing team at Gwinnett Medical Center took great care during my stay at the hospital, and I was most pleased with them. Interestingly, as is much of Gwinnett, the aides and nurses hail from all over, not just the USA, but the world, from Ecuador, New Jersey, Loganville, Lawrenceville, the Philippines, Bosnia, and many other places. It’s another display of Gwinnett’s diversity.
These health aides have their medical training from far-flung places, and all did a superb job of pricking, poking, pumping and prying on me at all times of day and night. At of all times, 4 a.m., I even had three X-rays, (rolling the hallways via wheelchair) each time.
Another element: when discharged from the hospital, the next medical step is home health care, providing the patient with home visits and physical therapy. This we found to be a great comfort, as they came regularly to check me out. Since I know little of how to treat a released patient, it was a great burden lifted, giving me (and my family) peace of mind from these visits. You wonder how those released from the hospital in earlier days got along without such care.
So give me a little more time for full recovery, and I will be physically a “new person” compared to what I was before. And meanwhile, we’ll return to the twice-weekly publication of GwinnettForum with this issue. Thank you for your patience during the once-a-week period. The trip to Lawrenceville was a good one for me!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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