Surgery update

Well I went into surgery this past Friday and was happy to finally get it over with. I was originally scheduled to go in at 1pm so it was going to be a challenge not to eat or drink anything that morning. I was happy to get a phone call on Thursday from the nurse telling me I was scheduled for 7am. Cool. Got some good rest and was up at 5am to chip the 1/2" of ice off all of our cars and throw a little salt down. Winter came in strong Thursday evening with a nasty ice storm that caused lots of damage in our neighborhood. Tree limbs and even whole trees were down everywhere.



Sloan drove me down to the surgery center, which is a convenient one mile down the road and we were the first ones to arrive for what they told us would be a stacked day at the surgery center. Got prepped, hangin' out in my gown, got the IV in my arm, and I was checking out the cool little device you clamp on your finger that shows you your heart rate. A relaxed 60 bpm or so. I was not nervous at all, just wanted to get it done and over with. After talking one last time to my surgeon Dr Wieland, I headed off to the operating room and got strapped down to the table. As the anesthesis was getting ready to give me the sleep serum, she was looking at the heart monitor and noticed my heart beat looked a little funny. Every once in a while it would skip a beat. I was feeling fine, heart rate still at about 60-65bpm, calm, relaxed, but it was pretty strange looking at my EKG and seeing that my heart did in fact skip a beat every once in a while...


The anesthesiologist came in and basically told them to abort, no way he was allowing me to go through with surgery having an anomaly with my heart. He wanted me to go see a cardiologist immediately. Geesh!! WTF!! My surgeon looked at the EKG and said it was probably no big deal. He wasn't too worried. Bottom line though....abort. They couldn't take a chance of putting me under and having my heart stop for some unknown reason and then not being prepared to jump start me.

So back to the recovery room to recover from nothing and put my clothes back on. Dr Wieland contacted one of the cardiac offices in town and got me in for a 10am consultation. I went in to see Dr Novak who I had actually seen about 10-12 years ago when I was having an issue with rapid heart rate. Long story, but no big deal, turned out to be nothing. Anyway, he looked at me, we talked a bit, he listened to my heart, and looked at my EKG. The verdict....nothing to worry about. This type of abnormality (if you want to call it that) is a common occurrence in lots of people. I should be fine for surgery.

Woo hoo!! I called Dr Wielands office and told them the news and asked if I could reschedule for later that afternoon. If I hadn't eaten a donut and drank some coffee I probably could have gotten in. I rescheduled for the following Monday. Tomorrow!! Probably be like deja vu going in there tomorrow. At least I'm gonna get it done. Recovery should be 6-8 weeks so looks like first of February before I'll be looking to get back into shape.

Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Restin'

So I've been taking it easy the past month or so. Relaxing, keeping the load off my mind. It's amazing how much an Ironman will consume your life and your brain. Balancing that with a wife (who I love), two grown kids (trust me, kids are a LOT of work when their young but its more mentally challenging when their grown), two dogs (and that damn cat), a full time 50+ mile per day commute to Decatur (the soy city), and a life (life?). Mind blowing when in season, so out of season I have to just compress and take a load off.

I did start running about four weeks ago and found out my "sports hernia" was for real and had never said goodbye. I figured with the time off and the fact that it really hadn't bothered my in Hawaii, I'd be safe to start up an easy run regimen that kept me in shape over the winter. NO! The day after I ran six miles for the first time, I was in some serious pain. I was probably so rested and felt like I could just keep going forever, I just put too much strain on things down there. From there, I thought I'd take it easy and run every other day. No better, I can take three days off and it still bothers me all day. I've got a Dr appt this Wed....cut me Mick!

K-dog is getting married this weekend in Mexico to his lovely wife Jill so he's been trying to "get in shape" the last 2-3 weeks or so by hitting the pool and running a bit. I'm on to his ways! We've been busting out a few thousand yds per session and the water feels great. I've restrained from running too much so I thought the pool is a good way to keep the fire alive. Gee I'm up to 187lbs or so, give me a break!! No, I just felt like it's a great way to shake the cob webs.

Been kicking around a few ideas for next year and think I'll do at least 2-3 half iron distance races. I really liked Pigman, I want to get back to Muncie, a guys trip with a half involved seems like a good idea, and I'd even like to do Steelhead and qualify for the Worlds. That's four so I'll have to figure something out. The only full iron distance race my wife will buy into (well, that's my excuse. Not that you can't get into an Ironman in North America next year....oh yea, you can't!) is RedMan in Oklahoma City. September race just before IM Wisconsin. Hot, flat, humid, and hot. I've been looking at this race for 3 years now and never had it fit into my schedule until now. Winning times have consistently dropped the past three years. 11hrs, 10hrs, 9.5hrs or something. If I put my mind to it, I could do well. If I put my mind to it... Might even entertain a late spring marathon, Madison? Hmmm...

I won't be doing much in the month of January, but come February, I hope the roads are clear and the weather is nice. I'm hoping for some outdoor riding like a couple years ago. Probably work the core again next season. Those circuit training sessions are awesome. I may post one more time with a surgery update. I'll have plenty of laying around time, I'm sure.

I posted more pictures to my Picasa account that Keith gave me. They are awesome!

later, cd