OK, I've asked for your help, and some of you have delivered BIG time. Now I'm going to beg on your sympathies. About two weeks ago, I went into the hospital for open heart surgery.
I arrived about 4:30 a.m. They ran me through all the standard intake stuff, getting identification, insurance, putting those cute little hospital bracelets on my wrist, etc. They put me in a lovely hospital gown, started an I.V., then I was visited by members of the surgical team, anesthesiology, etc. Sometime around 7:00 a.m. they wheeled me into the O.R. The anesthesiologist put me to sleep, and the real fun began.
My cardiac surgeon cut my chest from the top of the sternum to the bottom. Then he used a really cool saw I wish I had in my shop to cut the sternum in half, top to bottom.
Meanwhile, a second team splayed my legs apart like a frog and started harvesting the main vein in my right leg to be used as the graft. They worked laparoscopically, which, while it doesn't leave a large incision up and down your leg, means they're poking and prodding their way along separating the vein from everything it's connected to. When they were done, they had harvested from my ankle to my groin. The bruising is a technicolor delight.
Meanwhile, back up on my chest, the surgeon has placed a medieval device called a rib spreader between the two halves of my newly split rib cage. It has hooks that keep it from moving, and they start cranking on it like a wood clamp that opens the chest instead of clamping it together.
Once in, they attached me to a bypass machine, turned the machine on, and stopped my heart. They then started taking the harvested vein, sewing one end to the aorta just above the heart, then bringing the other end down to just past the blockage in the cardiac artery. They attach it, then repeat three more times.
When they were happy with their seamstress work, they restarted the heart and disconnected me from the bypass machine. Finally, they used wires to pull the two halves of the sternum back together and twisted them together to keep it together till it heals in about 6 months to a year. The wires stay in permanently.
I'm told I was on the table for about 6 hours. I am what is known as a CABG 4-way (Coronary Artery Bypass Graft X 4).
So that's the short version. It's why I was away for a few days. I've spent most of my time since coming home flat on my back in bed. I've been using a Kindle tablet to read and post on the forum. It's been great to talk to you all, but the Kindle is definitely limited in what it can do.
Each day, I spend some time at a table my wife set up in our family room with my laptop, where I can tend to administrator tasks and write longer posts like this one.
So, between having a broken body, and about half a brain from the anesthesia, I'm still pretty limited in what I can do.
Now, don't you all feel sorry for me? Don't you want to help a poor, old man out?
Seriously, all things considered, I'm doing great. I don't want anyone to clutter this thread with well wishes. I'm hoping for results.
Please keep the information coming in; assay services you've used, and mineral identification groups and sites to help these new guys identify their rocks. Anything we can use to put together a great sticky post we can all direct the new guys to that can help them figure out if they've got rocks or riches.
Thanks everyone for reading. It was very helpful for me to write it all out. I hope it will inspire you to find some resources to help build the thread we're working on.
Dave
I arrived about 4:30 a.m. They ran me through all the standard intake stuff, getting identification, insurance, putting those cute little hospital bracelets on my wrist, etc. They put me in a lovely hospital gown, started an I.V., then I was visited by members of the surgical team, anesthesiology, etc. Sometime around 7:00 a.m. they wheeled me into the O.R. The anesthesiologist put me to sleep, and the real fun began.
My cardiac surgeon cut my chest from the top of the sternum to the bottom. Then he used a really cool saw I wish I had in my shop to cut the sternum in half, top to bottom.
Meanwhile, a second team splayed my legs apart like a frog and started harvesting the main vein in my right leg to be used as the graft. They worked laparoscopically, which, while it doesn't leave a large incision up and down your leg, means they're poking and prodding their way along separating the vein from everything it's connected to. When they were done, they had harvested from my ankle to my groin. The bruising is a technicolor delight.
Meanwhile, back up on my chest, the surgeon has placed a medieval device called a rib spreader between the two halves of my newly split rib cage. It has hooks that keep it from moving, and they start cranking on it like a wood clamp that opens the chest instead of clamping it together.
Once in, they attached me to a bypass machine, turned the machine on, and stopped my heart. They then started taking the harvested vein, sewing one end to the aorta just above the heart, then bringing the other end down to just past the blockage in the cardiac artery. They attach it, then repeat three more times.
When they were happy with their seamstress work, they restarted the heart and disconnected me from the bypass machine. Finally, they used wires to pull the two halves of the sternum back together and twisted them together to keep it together till it heals in about 6 months to a year. The wires stay in permanently.
I'm told I was on the table for about 6 hours. I am what is known as a CABG 4-way (Coronary Artery Bypass Graft X 4).
So that's the short version. It's why I was away for a few days. I've spent most of my time since coming home flat on my back in bed. I've been using a Kindle tablet to read and post on the forum. It's been great to talk to you all, but the Kindle is definitely limited in what it can do.
Each day, I spend some time at a table my wife set up in our family room with my laptop, where I can tend to administrator tasks and write longer posts like this one.
So, between having a broken body, and about half a brain from the anesthesia, I'm still pretty limited in what I can do.
Now, don't you all feel sorry for me? Don't you want to help a poor, old man out?
Seriously, all things considered, I'm doing great. I don't want anyone to clutter this thread with well wishes. I'm hoping for results.
Please keep the information coming in; assay services you've used, and mineral identification groups and sites to help these new guys identify their rocks. Anything we can use to put together a great sticky post we can all direct the new guys to that can help them figure out if they've got rocks or riches.
Thanks everyone for reading. It was very helpful for me to write it all out. I hope it will inspire you to find some resources to help build the thread we're working on.
Dave
