Please be careful with your heart

My brother-in-law, F, had a triple by-pass surgery on Friday, February 25. Imagine the worry of sis and F after what happened to Ate Alice. F had 3 arteries that were clogged. This was caused by fatty deposits that built up in his arteries over the course of many years. This is why exercising is so important – to burn this fat.

F’s open heart surgery was carried out under general anesthesia – total unconsciousness. The first thing that the surgeon did was to open his chest, from just below the neck to the middle of the upper body. That must be about a foot long. Then he cut (sawed) the breastbone (sternum). Ouch! To open his heart and operate inside it, they needed to stop his heart. So he was attached to a heart-lung machine to pump and oxygenate his blood during surgery. Meanwhile, the surgeon took a blood vessel from his leg and sewed it to bridge over (bypass) the blockage. The surgeon repaired three of his arteries. Hence, it is called a triple bypass.

After the operation, the heart-lung machine was slowed down and F’s newly repaired heart started beating and getting stronger and the machine was then turned off. He was then attached to a pacemaker to regulate his heartbeats.

A couple of days after the surgery, F was encouraged to walk around in the hospital.

When R and Kumpareng Rodel visited him, the latter wanted to see F’s scar. R walked out of the room. He didn’t want to see the scar. Mahina talaga ang loob ni R. When Rodel saw his scar, he almost fainted. R called a nurse to attend to Rodel. Nahilo, namutla at nagdilim ang paningin. He wasn’t expecting that F’s scar would be that big. For sure, he saw his wife’s C-section scar. But that was nothing compared to F’s. Also, R noticed that at 39 years of age, F was the youngest heart patient in the second floor of the hospital.

Here’s something else that’s interesting. Sis has observed that most of the heart patients were males. She asked the nurse if it’s only mostly men that get heart diseases. The nurse replied, “No. It’s just that men are babies. They complain when they feel any kind of pain. While women are used to suffering in silence. If ever they get a heart disease, it gets untreated. They suffer heart attacks and die.” Dedo na agad. (What does this tell us women?)

I commented to sis, “That’s true. We women feel pain regularly, for instance, menstrual cramps. We get so used to it that we don’t complain.” Imagine if men get menstrual cramps, they’d probably be at the doctor’s every month. And I guess, we, women, better get those chest pains checked. As well as other aches such as chronic headaches, fatigues, back pains, etc.

F is back home now recuperating. He will have to take it easy for a while. He has to wait 6 weeks before he could drive again and do the usual chores that he does.