The Cooker

Today, Friday, Michael "The Cooker" is in HUP (Hospital U of Pennsylvania) completeing a 45 year prediction that one day he'd need a "valve operation". Keep him in your prayers, as I know you are anyway, he was anxious when I was with him Wednesday night. I think he was more worried about the feeling of claustrophibia he would have once he came out of surgery than he was about the operation itself. His personal coach, trainer, nutritionist, confidant and oh yeah, caring wife Mary assured him she would not allow him to pull anything out of his nose, throat or any other orifice that may have a tube in it. He had to be at HUP at 5:30 AM today. He didn't know exactly what time he'd be started on but was told that it was 1 to 1.5 hour preparation time before the actual surgery started. He found this out when he answered the doctor's question, "Do you know what to expect?" with "Yeah, I'll be alright as long as you keep the blood flowing to my brain." Doctor said, "Well not exactly. We lower your body temperature to 10 degrees so it slows your brain down and you don't need as much blood....." Michael being the serious fellow he is says, "Will you give me a blanket while you do that?" Never misses an opportunity for a joke. He was told the operation would be about 7 -8 hours, have 8 doctors, a squad of nurses and only the cardio surgeon himself would touch his heart. They are going to repair his mitral valve, replace his aortal valve and then take out a "bump", the medical term the doctor described it with, in his aorta and patch it with a dacron patch. Whew! The doctor said he'd feel like a truck ran him over for 7 to 10 days and then he'd gradually feel better and in 90 days he'd be 100%. He should be in the hospital for 7 days. Mary and the girls are going to be hanging out at the hospital all day and they'll let us know how things went when they can.