Keeps on ticking

Aloha Gang, Minnesota Skinny here, and I wanted to give you all a quick rundown of how the surgery on my heart went:

Spoiler alert:

I made it!

I call myself “Minnesota Skinny” as I have lost almost 20 pounds since I was weighed in at the Mayo Clinic here in Rochester, Minnesota. I am sure there are other methods of weight loss that are a lot less painful and I would not recommend my course of action to anyone (well, maybe a few people, but no one I would single out here in the paper.)

I have been in recovery mode for nearly the past 168 hours and some have been better than others. While talking with my wife, Charity, ahead of my final doctor’s appointment today she started recounting how the procedure came off for her and our daughter Sophia when I was under and away. She said that once the docs wheeled me off she didn’t see me again until hours later when I was out of ICU and had been freshly plied with a dose of Ketamine, a pain reducer that makes Advil seem like lollipops.

Yowza!

Come to find out, one of the side effects of Ketamine is memory loss and thank God for all favors, small and large. Charity said I was using some rather colorful language while in the ICU and I do {sadly} remember talking with anyone who would listen about how unfortunate my nether regions looked after being prepped for surgery but how good I felt about it at the time.

Awkward.

Charity said none of the hospital staff seemed offended and understand my state of mind. The next few days after that were somewhat dark and I was feeling kind of depressed, but I can happily say I am well on my way to success and the doctors are ecstatic with my progress. They all say I seem way ahead in my recovery but warn me to take it slow and that is what I will do.

Tomorrow night (Saturday, December 23) we will board a train for home and the three of us are very excited to be headed back to Phillips County for a multitude of reasons and for me, one of the biggest reasons I can’t wait to get home is to see all of you. Your prayers, positive vibes and well wishes were felt here, 1,400 miles away, and I have no doubt that you guys helped me through this tough time.

More to follow, see you soon.

Mahalo and Aloha,

M