A quick update

Before I get into tonight's posts, a quick update on myself. My health went somewhat downhill over the weekend: I began to run a fever on Saturday, and felt very low by Sunday evening. I went to my doctor this morning (he'd issued strict instructions that if anything at all happened, I was to get to his surgery ASAP, never mind making an appointment). He reckons I've probably picked up a bit of the flu that's wandering around. (I've been inoculated against the seasonal flu, but not against the piggy variety.) He reckons it's not worth testing to see which I've got, because the labs are overwhelmed and only testing those actually admitted to hospital. He's put me on Tamiflu, plus an antibiotic to prevent any infection settling into last month's surgical scars or related areas. I'll be taking it easy for the next few days. No rehab exercises until I've gotten rid of the fever, no gallivanting around (not that there was too much of that going on anyway!).

I've heard (and read) a number of horror stories in recent weeks about those who've undergone open-heart surgery suffering from severe clinical depression in the weeks and months following their operations. That would explain why the nurses at the rehab sessions are constantly wanting to know about my 'mental state', and asking about such things as depression. Y'know, for the life of me, I can't think of anything to be depressed about! Sure, I'm hurting quite a lot still, and moving rather slowly, and I'll be limited for several months yet: but I'm alive! There's a lot to be said for that . . . and last October 5th, there were times when I wasn't so sure that would be an ongoing state of affairs! I'll live with the limitations, thank you, and work hard to make them a thing of the past. Depressed? Fuhgettabahtit! I've got too much living to do to be depressed!

I'm still hoping to be fit enough to visit Oleg in early December - it's far too long since I last saw him, and he can take pretty pictures of the newly-installed zipper in my chest. Otherwise, I'm still annoyed that I couldn't attend Blogorado last weekend. I'd been looking forward to it for months, only to have my heart attack derail plans. Oh, well, there's always next time - and it looks like those who attended this inaugural event set a pretty high standard for us to beat next year! Congratulations to Farmgirl (and, of course, FarmDad and FarmMom) for organizing what looks like a very successful occasion.

(However, I can't get out of my mind the impossible mental image of Ambulance Driver giving a lap-dance to AEPilotJim. Some things are just too ghastly to contemplate! And no, don't you dare post photographs, Farmgirl!)



Peter