Open Heart Surgery

[DFW]

86. Hey, if Bill Clinton can do it, so can you!

Though nothing (yet) open heart, I have had a few cardiac near-misses, one of which elicited “just in time” in English from the surgeon, and this was not in an English-speaking country. I’m probably due for another operation in the near future. I have a family history of both cancer and heart issues. I’m 74, and men on both sides of my family almost never make it to 80 (in four generations, only two that I know of).

BUT…. cardiology has made spectacular advances in recent years, and statistically, your chances are good. Once it’s done, do what they tell you, do NOT eat what they tell you not to (that’s the hard part), and don’t try to take recovery faster than the docs say you can. Do all that and you should be fine. As a side note, I saw Clinton a few years after his quintuple bypass, and he looked great. Skinny as a rail and body movement more agile than when he was in the White House. He had become vegan, which must have required an iron will. I know what the White House kitchen staff is capable of, and I’m sure he must have missed eating like that whenever he wanted.

As for statistics, even those are only indications, not absolutes. The second time my wife had cancer, it was a rare form known as “the murderer,” since it was always fatal. But hers was caught earlier than her oncologist had ever seen. He managed to fast-track an operation for her (very difficult here, as she only has “coach class” insurance), and she became that one in ten thousand that survived it. That was ten years ago, and 4 to 18 months is usually the best anyone with that kind of cancer can hope for.

So, hope for the best, then DO your best, and you should be here to tell the tale for a long while.