Seal Team Six

George Harrison & the Good Doctor

I post a lot of nature photos on social networks; never a discouraging word or thought, and leave the heavy lifting to experts. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you may have seen heavenly palm trees and a bunch of whales breaching; that’s how I stay positive. That’s who I am.

Behind the scenes it was a tumultuous month

in which my life was saved by a group of doctors I’ll call Seal Team Six.

I feel much better at this writing than after a six-hour quintuple bypass open heart surgery back in January. It turns out that two of five ‘new’ arteries failed on that procedure, possibly in real time when they bound my rib cage back together. I wondered for two months why I wasn’t getting better like other patients I met in cardio rehab. No butterfly for me. I remained a cocoon, stumbling through my days in half light. I even barked at my friend and neighbor Jennifer when she asked me how I was doing.

Frustration became dizziness, blood pressures went skyward and I slogged through stroke territory all of last week. I checked into the ER a week ago today.

This is where we discovered the two vessel failures choking blood flow. On Monday I lucked into a time slot ‘downstairs’ in the operating room that repaired the damaged vessels, adding a stent.

My luck held and I was allowed by a kind and perceptive surgeon to remain conscious just enough to watch what great surgeons and med tech can do nowadays.

The expert team in the O.R. ran catheters up to my heart through the groin and left wrist; working together as one like Seal Team Six.

Beforehand, Dr McIntyre had offered me the opportunity to share in the exhilaration his team felt. They rode the sedation feed like a sound man mixing the best band I ever heard jammin’ on their best song. I saw and heard their narrative top to bottom. Every word, every response - I saw things I’ve never seen before. It was psychedelic.

When I got to sleep Monday night, George Harrison visited my dreams to discuss reincarnation of the soul and spirit as we arrive and depart Maya the material world. We enjoyed a long mystical conversation no doubt triggered by medications. So be it.

I woke up refreshed, cheerful disposition restored overnight. It had worked!

Energy flowed through me like a mountain stream. With each following day until this writing, I have only felt better. Soon, very soon the caterpillar will become a butterfly. I can feel it coming.

Thank you Dr. McIntyre and Seal Team Six. I’m back.