Enforced Holiday

[Nick the Cabin Boy]

Hi everyone!

Just a quick note to let you know that I had a minor heart attack on Sunday, while bushwalking, and am now in Hospital awaiting a quintuple bypass operation.  It sounds a lot scarier than it is, so they keep telling me, so in the meantime I am waiting for David to send my rego no so I can install AR on SWMBO's laptop and continue my planning (SWMBO can't find it on my PC!)

Your messages of support will be greatly appreciated (the more humorous the better!).

Nick

[Mike from CT]

Nick:

Of course, the very best wishes for your recovery. But *quintuple* bypass? When you do something, you certainly do it in a biiiiiig way.  ARe you sure one room is going to be enough for a layout (unless that room is Sidney Opera Hall)? (Sorry, I don't know any large rooms in NZ).

Anyway, rest and get well quickly.

[BritsTukker]

Hi, Nick.

Sorry to hear about your health problems. I'm not sure that 'minor' heart attack and 'quintuple' bypass really go together. Added to the fact that I've never heard of a quintuple bypass before and a couple of my ex-colleagues had quadruple bypasses which has taken them a long time to recover from, I imagine you're going to be out of commission for a while. I do hope you can get a lot of enjoyment from designing and redesigning layouts on your laptop (although the small screen is likely to make it frustrating).
You will certainly be in our thoughts over the coming weeks. All the very best!

@Mike: your geography's terrible. Nick was in Tasmania and is now in Victoria on the Aussie mainland. I'm not aware of any connection to New Zealand.....

[vistisen]

All the best, hospital operations are hard to be funny about. But glad to see you have a positive attitude about it. Sure that helps a lot in the recovery process.   

[Mike from CT]

@Brits.....


After moving to the mainland, he mentioned he was in the process of moving 1300 miles east - that's New Zealand.


(Added by edit: Oops, that was 1300 meters, not 1300 miles.  I have to put on my glasses more often.....  )

[Nick the Cabin Boy]

Thanks for the thoughts, fellers!

Actually, I'd never heard of a quintuple bypass until a couple of weeks ago, when we caught up with an old friend of SWMBO's who had just had one.  In my case, it's all four main arteries, plus one branch line (probably due to be closed as part of cost-cutting measures, but important enough to keep open for now).

And, apparently, I will be able to do some modelling, but I won't be able to make the baseboards for the new layout just yet.  Can make lots of Metcalfe kits, though, and 12 are on the way.

Nick

[Mike from CT]

All the best, hospital operations are hard to be funny about.

<snip>

Not for me.  At least not when it's *someone else* that's having the operation, and not me.... 

[RhB_HJ]

All the best.
The one thing to remember in life: Only the good die young, given our age we no longer qualify (relatively speaking!).

[Mike from CT]

All the best.
The one thing to remember in life: Only the good die young, given our age we no longer qualify (relatively speaking!).

At least in my case, that's because when I got older I no longer had anything left to dye.....

[Nick the Cabin Boy]

Well, I'm finally home, after 16 days in hospital, which is to be celebrated, cause I could have not come home at all, except for the wake.

I would hazard a guess that most of the Senior Members of this Forum are, in fact, Seniors in age as well as experience.  Therefore, I put forward this suggestion to all of you.

NEVER DISMISS ANY PAIN AS "I'LL BE ALRIGHT IN A MOMENT, DON'T FUSS"

My heart attack was a repeat of pains I had been having for some weeks, and dismissing as heartburn, except that this time I also got the dreaded numb left arm as well.  By the time my wife had been to fetch the car (about 20-30 minutes), I was feeling fine, and just wanted to go home.  She very wisely took me to hospital.

The end result was, I was told, that ALL pains I had been having had done a significant amount of damage, my arteries were all blocked, to varying degrees (70% was the best!).  This attack was the clincher, and if I left the hospital before they fixed it, they would not be held responsible.

So now, I have my railway modelling to do, and not a lot else, for at least a few months.  No driving for a least three months.

So please, friends, heed any warning signs - you may not be as lucky as I was.

Nick, Geelong

[Mike from CT]

Nick,

My story (not nearly as serious as yours.  In fact not serious at all, as it turned out.)

I have a problem with stomach reflux.  I've long known I had the problem.

Many years ago, one day around noon, I started having some pain in my chest.  Not quite where I envisioned my heart to be, but close enough.  So I called my doctor.  But it was a Wednesday and he was off playing golf (seriously), so they recommended I call his back-up. I did, but he was out to lunch and would call back.  I was home alone and thought I was being rational, but when the pain didn't go away, I called 911 (emergency first responders - fire, police and medical) and explained I was having this chest pain I'd never had and couldn't reach my physician or his backup and wondered what to do. (Also mentioned that my father had a pace-maker installed at about the age I was at the time.  That was my mistake...)  I hadn't finished talking to the operator before the first police unit showed up at my door.  Then an ambulance, then a backup police unit and full-on EMT's.  I really just wanted advice.  They all really wanted to get me to the hospital and the neighbors were beginning to gather in the yard, so, rather than disappoint them, off I went to the hospital, full treatment (lights and sirens, with ambulance and EMT's vehicle convoying along).

By now, of course, the pain was gone and I was feeling less like a celebrity and more like a fool, but  the ambulance crew assured me I was doing the right thing (and they wouldn't turn the damn thing around, regardless.)

Arriving at the hospital by ambulance around here is the best way to arrive - no time in the waiting room, you go directly in to be examined and, in no time, I was hooked to to an EKG, a drip and an assortment of very impressive and mostly indecipherable monitors.  A phlebotomist came and took blood samples and disappeared.

And I lay there....  For hours....  Waiting to be detached and told to go home.... (Long enough for an elderly woman who'd fainted on the street and bumped her head to come, be examined and released and I was still laying there.)  They told me they were waiting for the cardiologist to come and check me out.  Finally - at around five thirty, he did.  And explained they were going to keep me since, while there was no positive indication that I'd had a coronary problem, I had an elevated white blood count and sometimes that was the body's reaction to a coronary episode, so they wanted to watch me and, in the morning, run a couple of tests, including a stress test.

Meanwhile, my wife, who'd had to find out from my neighbors why I wasn't home when she got home, but couldn't find out anything from the hospital, sat home with the kids.  Around, maybe seven pm I finally managed to convince the cardiac care unit nurse that I should be allowed my one call before they incarcerated me and I called home, feeling slightly sheepish but wondering if there had been an episode.  Obviously, the hospital and cardiologist were taking it seriously.

It's probably too late to cut a long story short, but the tests the next day were all "clean" and I got to pay for my own cab ride home.

There's a postscript, however.  A couple of years ago, on a really hot day, I started fainting every time I tried to stand up, so back to 911.  That one was senile stupidity - I was dehydrated although I'd been drinking plenty of liquids.  (I didn't know that  the caffeine in Coke and coffee increased dehydration, making the drinks worse than useless).  Anyway, back to the hospital (no lights or sirens, this time), a drip and more blood tests.  I had an elevated white blood count again, but this time they assumed that, in addition to being dehydrated I had some infection of some sort.  Blood tests didn't find it.  Cultures didn't find it, X-rays and MRI's didn't find anything, but I had a private room with an "Infectious" sign on the door, really lousy food three times a day and various and sundry technicians and specialists showing up at random times. On the third day they gave up and sent me home.

When I got home I called my doctor and asked him a simple question: "Is my white blood count *always* elevated?"  Turns out it always is, no matter how healthy I am.  I just naturally have a higher than normal WBC.  Probably a *good* thing for fighting various infections, at least on days when the hospital staff doesn't find out about it..... :-)

------

All that said, your entreaty that we old folks take our pains seriously, is solid advice - at least when your doctor isn't off playing golf or out to lunch, at any rate.

Glad everything worked out for you (well, worked out considering the alternative) and here's to a healthy and uneventful recovery - and 12 completed models for your layout.

[Nick the Cabin Boy]

The food at my hospital was so bad that my wife wrote a letter to the local daily newspaper, which they printed.

First thing Monday morning I had a visit from the General Manager, Food Services.  He did at least listen to us, and explained how the food was prepared (off-site).  We pointed out to him that that was the main problem!  An English Muffin, in a paper bag, heated for four hours, will break teeth!

Their preparation methods meant that all the food was dry and tasteless.

Nick

[BritsTukker]

Hi, Nick, glad to see you're back in circulation after the op. Hope you don't feel too uncomfortable.

I am always amazed that hospital food generally is so poor - you're in there to get better and the catering system seems designed to ensure that if its left to them, you won't. (Reminds me of the film 'Soylent Green' - perhaps the caterers are paid by the recycling firms) They should be providing top notch food to ensure you get better and out of there in the shortest possible time.

I only have one recent experience of time in hospital. I got rushed in early one morning after collapsing at home. After discussions and tests they concluded food poisoning was the most likely cause and kept me on liquid food only for nearly three days. Finally they gave me a proper meal (which was actually quite good) and when I didn't throw up after a couple of hours, they sent me home.
Luckily my local hospital (in NL) was one where they prepared their own food on site and had a restaurant open to visitors and outpatients, It makes a big difference from those that just buy in precooked muck.
Now I'm back in UK they have a mix of in-house and buy-in regimes at different hospitals. However, I shall do my best not to have to call on their services.

Nick, I hope your convalescence goes well - at least now you'll get decent food and probably pampered something rotten. Just what you need!

[Mike from CT]

@Brits:

If the hospital food were better, folks might want to stay longer.  I know I would.  I've eaten my own cooking.....

[Mike from CT]

The food at my hospital was so bad that my wife wrote a letter to the local daily newspaper, which they printed.

...

Their preparation methods meant that all the food was dry and tasteless.

Nick

Ever have salt-free, cholesterol-free, taste-free scrambled eggs (actually, I'm sure they're egg-free as well)? And that's as good as it gets on cardiac care wards.

Honestly, next time I think I'm having a cardiac episode,  I'm gonna call 911 and tell them I murdered someone.  The food on death row has to be better....