Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Tuesday exhaustion

I kept thinking it was Wednesday all day today. I think I was just being hopeful that I could put up a Wordless Wednesday post today....

My dad had a cardiac stent put in today. For those of you who didn't go to medical school, basically they threaded a catheter up into one of the arteries in his heart, removed the clog of plaque there - so, basically, it's like breaking up a clog in your slow-draining sink with a pipe snake - and then placed a tiny little tube of metal mesh that looks like those Chinese handcuffs you used to play with as a kid, which is designed to help the artery stay open.

As dramatic as roto-rootering the arteries in one's heart sounds, it's actually one of those not-a-very-big-deal kinds of procedures.

Which is only true when it's not YOUR parent they're proceduring.

But he is, of course, fine. He's staying overnight in Hotel L (where I went to medical school; he's in good hands) but we'll spring him in the morning. And I suspect he'll be feeling better in the weeks that come; the very adorable doc who did the procedure remarked how big that vessel was, even though it's not usually a super-important vessel.

I do have to say one thing for the docs I met today; in NC? Our Cardiology fellows are generally assholes. In fact, remember Dr. Asshole from my days on the State Hospital Medical Unit? Now a Cards fellow at Baby Blue. The guys I met here today? Generally very nice. Now, admittedly, I was also a family member, not some terrified psych resident paging in the middle of the night because "the monitor says those PVCs were a run of NSVT!! Clearly the patient's about to die!! Eeeek!!!" Might make a difference. Or, you know, it could also be something about Hotel L.

Regardless, y'all, I'm pooped.

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