HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER

New Years

I would like get a little personal this week as we approach another year. As most of you know, this has not been the best of years for yours truly. It actually began in November, 2010, when I had a mini-stroke. It was an incident that I am sure many people have and just go home and rest for a couple of hours until the strange feeling passes. Luckily, my two sons insisted I go to the Emergency Room, where I began a two-day stay and underwent every test under the sun. Regular follow-up visits to my primary doctor led her to believe I should see a cardiologist because my blood pressure was remaining high. He ordered a Petscan and from there he said I needed a coronary catheterization. I was getting a bit skeptical about this time and asked where this was going to be done and what did it entail. He said I would go in the hospital in the morning and, if they could free the arteries around my heart with a minor procedure called “balloon surgery”, that’s all they would do. If I needed something more serious, they would put a stint in and I would have to remain in the hospital overnight. I thought this was all becoming more involved than I wanted but “the doctor knows best”. When I woke up after this procedure on March 21, the heart surgeon was standing at the foot of my bed and said. “George, your heart is a mess. You have blockages in three arteries of 92, 95 and 99%. We have to do open heart surgery as soon as possible. You’re a heart attack waiting to happen. If the surgery is not done, I guarantee you will have a fatal heart attack within five years.” This really got my attention. I went in a week to the day and had quadruple heart by-pass surgery. I came through that just fine. The real problem began five days after the heart surgery when I developed toxic megacolon by late Friday. This is when your colon blows up to the point of almost bursting. Another surgeon was called in and operated on me at 1:20 Saturday morning. This operation left me with half a colon and a colostomy and ileostomy bag attached to my stomach. These were bothersome for the three months I had them. I went back in the hospital on June 24 to lose my additional baggage. Another three week stay at PRMC using what they call a wound vacuum left me with over a hundred stitches/staples and two rather sizable holes in my stomach. I came home with a portable wound vacuum I had to live with 24 hours a day for four weeks. This contraption was a real pain in the neck.

During all this recuperation. I developed an ulcer on the rheumatoid nodule on my right heel that prevented me from wearing shoes. I started going to the Wound Center at PRMC on August 15 and went there every week for 10 weeks until October 17.

Because I had fallen twice and they weren’t sure why, I went to PRMC on October 21 for something called a tilt table test. I was making out fine until they put a nitroglycerine tablet under my tongue. Everything went haywire from this point and I thought I was certainly headed back for another stay in the hospital.. I calmed down and heard nothing further from this test.

The next medical issue to address was some spots of actinic keratoses. This is a form of pre-cancer that shows up on many people as a result of exposure to sun when we were young. It is cured by about a six-week process using the miracle cream fluorouracil. Anybody that has any lesions that just won’t go away, this is the cure for that. A four ounce tube of it is available by prescription for about $240.00. When I first used this years ago, I was complaining about the cost to my son. His comment was, “Pretty cheap to get rid of cancer.” I guess he was right, considering what everything has cost me this year.

So, I am now taking 15 pills a day and doing fine. There is a reason why they call it “practice medicine”. This year they have practiced on me.

But to get to the point of this article, I have become acutely aware of my mortality. I had never thought about it before because I have never been sick in my life. Just the thought of not seeing my granddaughters grow up, of leaving this mess of a house behind for my sons to deal with is a very sobering thought. As of now I look forward to many more years to enjoy with my friends and family. Everyone should think about their life and how much they have to live for. Happy New Year –it can’t be any worse than last year!