Friday, June 30, 2006

Genetics?

No wonder I'm nuts and have no patience. I blame it on my family. Maybe it's genetic.
My 77 year old uncle had open heart surgery yesterday. The surgery was to replace a porcine valve that was put in 19 years ago. It has been replaced by a bovine valve. (So he's kosher again!) The old valve was supposed to last 8 or 9 years, so the fact that it kept going for 19 years is pretty good. Even still, it's unsettling to think about a guy his age going in for such a major surgery. I have to admit I had a hard time getting to sleep last night wondering if everything went okay.
The news this afternoon was that my uncle's doing even better than his doctor anticipated he'd be doing at this point. They may have even already moved him out of the ICU. My dad's going down to Boston for a visit tomorrow.
Today at lunch my dad told me a story about the last time my uncle had heart surgery and my dad went to visit him a couple of days later. He said my uncle got out of bed, put on his robe and started walking out of his room. A nurse saw him and asked him what in the world he thought he was doing. "I'm going to lunch with my brother!" was his reply. Being as that he was just a couple of days post-op, she yelled at him and made him get back into bed. He and my dad got a big kick out of the whole thing.
I can almost picture me doing the same thing 30 or 40 years from now, but the line will be "I"m going to breakfast with my sister!."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've told you all along that genetics are a bitch....

Pam said...

Yeah, "Anon", I know you have.
And it works in all directions!