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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: The REAL triple bypass

9/8/2000 12:38 PM
CJ Landry	Re: The REAL triple bypass I have to apologize because I did not know you were checking into the hospital. I am glad to hear you are OK and staying it touch with us all. From the way it looks, did you have a heart bypass a stent(s) installed? CJ

9/15/2000 2:56 AM
Mark Hammer	Once again, thanks for the accumulating good wishes. If every doofus trotted out their maladies here, you'd need a box of Kleenex to log on every day. Fortunately, between the odd chemical dependency put on public display, and my own stupid cardiovascular system, this has been kept to a blessed minimum. Yours truly had chunks of his leg re-installed in his chest, and another segment of his chest re-arranged (Geez I wish I had installed sockets instead of soldering those damn things to the board!). Parts of it were things I hope to never encounter again (I think I know where Mel Gibson got his inspiration for the end of Braveheart from!), but the brunt has been remarkably devoid of drama or anguish. Exactly two weeks post-op today, and my wife and I went out to hunt for computer mags this afternoon. Of course the best part of the story was the day of surgery. (PARENTAL ADVISORY) 8 hours after they wheel me into recovery, my wife and sister come to visit me. I'm looking fairly Borg-like, with tubes hanging off everywhere. My wife asks me, "Is there anything I can do or get?" I slowly open my eyes, and carefully enunciate each word. "I have one request. You're the only one who can do this." My wife leans forward and steels herself for the most dramatic request of almost 20 years of marriage....."Scratch my balls...please...I can't reach and nobody else will do it". The nurses in post-op just about soiled themselves. My wife and sister just about keeled over. Being the wonderful woman she is, though, the request was honoured. And THAT muy amigo, is when the healing began. I tell ya, there are places where God never intended a man to have stubble... Great to be back. V2 of the ECF paper is just about ready.

9/15/2000 2:56 AM

Mark Hammer

Once again, thanks for the accumulating good wishes. If every doofus trotted out their maladies here, you'd need a box of Kleenex to log on every day. Fortunately, between the odd chemical dependency put on public display, and my own stupid cardiovascular system, this has been kept to a blessed minimum.

Yours truly had chunks of his leg re-installed in his chest, and another segment of his chest re-arranged (Geez I wish I had installed sockets instead of soldering those damn things to the board!). Parts of it were things I hope to never encounter again (I think I know where Mel Gibson got his inspiration for the end of Braveheart from!), but the brunt has been remarkably devoid of drama or anguish. Exactly two weeks post-op today, and my wife and I went out to hunt for computer mags this afternoon.

Of course the best part of the story was the day of surgery. (PARENTAL ADVISORY) 8 hours after they wheel me into recovery, my wife and sister come to visit me. I'm looking fairly Borg-like, with tubes hanging off everywhere. My wife asks me, "Is there anything I can do or get?" I slowly open my eyes, and carefully enunciate each word. "I have one request. You're the only one who can do this." My wife leans forward and steels herself for the most dramatic request of almost 20 years of marriage....."Scratch my balls...please...I can't reach and nobody else will do it". The nurses in post-op just about soiled themselves. My wife and sister just about keeled over.

Being the wonderful woman she is, though, the request was honoured. And THAT muy amigo, is when the healing began.

I tell ya, there are places where God never intended a man to have stubble...

Great to be back. V2 of the ECF paper is just about ready.

9/15/2000 1:54 PM
Ken	I just had to say my wife and I pissed our self's reading your reply. I don't know you and you don't know me but as a fellow human being I am so glad you are better. We have lost two baby's due to prem birth recently, life is so precious. Look after yourself. Ken

9/15/2000 3:43 PM
Ed Rembold	Mark, Amoung other things, you're a good writer. best wishes on a fast recovery. Ed R.

9/15/2000 7:03 PM
J Epstein	Boy, from the height of goofiness to the low of personal tragedy in two posts - this is an awfully deep crowd. Ken, good luck to you and your wife. You must be devastated. I wish you the will to keep trying. Mark, holy shit, that was funny. Good luck with the recuperation. -j

9/15/2000 9:08 PM
Mark Hammer	EVERYONE is deep, baby. All it takes is a little crack in the armour to find that out. I'm not an exibitionist by nature, but one of the things I have enjoyed most about teaching (when I get to do it) is that a little self-disclosure goes a long way. Say one basic human thing about yourself in class, and it's like everyone has suddenly gotten permission to exhale. It's nice to be able to do that for people. They're usually too frigging tense trying to pretend their lives are perfect. A buddy of mine and I, were once comparing the size of student lineups outside our respective doors. He is every bit as compassionate as myself, and a decent guy who deserves to be where he is (the well-respected VP of a major Canadian university), but where I always seemed to have someone knocking on my door, he never heard boo from his students. As I saw it, his subject matter (physiological psychology) left little room for self-disclosure or overt compassion; don't expect anyone to cry while discussing ionic transport across cell membranes. In contrast, I was teaching adult development and aging, and it wouldn't take long before someone in class had a story about wiping shit off the parent they had grown up idolizing. Once you indicate that you empathize, that's it, all masks come off, and all the students turn into people. Very different vibe. The unwritten message was, it's OK to talk about it, and it's OK to talk about it with this guy. That's cool, though. I'm one of those folks who think that people happen to be more beautiful without the masks. Funny how simply talking about scrotal itching changes things, innit? I must have heard 100 stories about miraculous recoveries following bypass surgery, but it still didn't stop me from walking into surgery thinking "They're cutting my damn chest open and stopping my heart!! I may not come back." Now, here I am. I was stupid to be scared, but it was good for me. Similarly, I'm sure you've heard all the anecdotes about folks who had 3, 4, and 5 false starts, then struck gold, but that doesn't cut it unless the gold is in your hands, does it? I appreciate your confidence, Ken. Best of luck to you and your wife. Glad I could give you something to laugh about. Once again, thanks to all. Now, scuse me whilst I go watch my fellow Canadians kick someone's ass in Sydney. Oz ge heyrt, Gott?

9/15/2000 9:08 PM

Mark Hammer

EVERYONE is deep, baby. All it takes is a little crack in the armour to find that out. I'm not an exibitionist by nature, but one of the things I have enjoyed most about teaching (when I get to do it) is that a little self-disclosure goes a long way. Say one basic human thing about yourself in class, and it's like everyone has suddenly gotten permission to exhale. It's nice to be able to do that for people. They're usually too frigging tense trying to pretend their lives are perfect.

A buddy of mine and I, were once comparing the size of student lineups outside our respective doors. He is every bit as compassionate as myself, and a decent guy who deserves to be where he is (the well-respected VP of a major Canadian university), but where I always seemed to have someone knocking on my door, he never heard boo from his students. As I saw it, his subject matter (physiological psychology) left little room for self-disclosure or overt compassion; don't expect anyone to cry while discussing ionic transport across cell membranes. In contrast, I was teaching adult development and aging, and it wouldn't take long before someone in class had a story about wiping shit off the parent they had grown up idolizing. Once you indicate that you empathize, that's it, all masks come off, and all the students turn into people. Very different vibe. The unwritten message was, it's OK to talk about it, and it's OK to talk about it with this guy.

That's cool, though. I'm one of those folks who think that people happen to be more beautiful without the masks.

Funny how simply talking about scrotal itching changes things, innit?

I must have heard 100 stories about miraculous recoveries following bypass surgery, but it still didn't stop me from walking into surgery thinking "They're cutting my damn chest open and stopping my heart!! I may not come back." Now, here I am. I was stupid to be scared, but it was good for me. Similarly, I'm sure you've heard all the anecdotes about folks who had 3, 4, and 5 false starts, then struck gold, but that doesn't cut it unless the gold is in your hands, does it? I appreciate your confidence, Ken. Best of luck to you and your wife. Glad I could give you something to laugh about.

Once again, thanks to all. Now, scuse me whilst I go watch my fellow Canadians kick someone's ass in Sydney. Oz ge heyrt, Gott?

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