I expect to hear from you 10 minutes after surgery. Don't let me down.
Well you almost heard from me last night, but I was using my iPhone (had packed up the laptop when the moved me from the cath floor to the pre-surgery floor) and the connection got gummed up and the post wouldn't go through. But I knew you'd be interested in the hospital itself, so I'll let y'all know on and off what happens today.
Many thanks to Mary for starting the thread and getting the good, good, good vibrations goin' (sorry; child of the '60s).
So here's the scoop on the Baylor Heart Hospital in Plano Texas (or, as I may have already referred to it, the BHH, Resort, and Spa). I walked into this place in time for my 8 am check up yesterday morning, and it's a bloody 5 star hotel. We aren't patients. We're "guests." Had I come in directly for surgery, I'd have been put in a "suite" in which I would stay for everything but the operation itself. The ICU facilities are all mobile and can be plugged into individual suites as needed (actually, the room on the cath floor I was in yesterday had all the necessary plugs, and so does this one on the pre-surgery floor), so it looks like almost any room in the hospital could be turned into an ICU if necessary.
I'm going to see Dr. Jett some time this morning to talk a bit more (I introduced him on my cath thread), and discuss the x-rays taken this morning to see where my heart is in relation to my sternum. He also scoped out my right ankle as a possible bypass graft source in case I need a tune-up. Even though three of the previous grafts look fine, one has "branched out" and closed off. In case I haven't mentioned this before, there are scars on both my inner thighs as mementos of failed vessel hunts during my CABG. The grafts I got were made out of my left mammary artery and something they got out of my left ankle. Leftover co-axial cable or something.
So he wants to be prepared for whatever he finds when he opens me up. He knows my previous surgeon and my ex-cardio really well, so it's like old home night at the Golden Corral around here.
He's thinkin' St. Judes for the valve, so I'll be checking through the valve choice threads this morning.
The food is wonderful. I had an omelet when I was finally allowed to eat yesterday, and it was great. Sweet & Sour Grilled Chicken on Jasmine Rice for dinner, and pie. Real pie (lemon meringue). Delivered by a waiter with a bow tie, and a flower (no, that's not all he was wearing!). I'm a little disappointed that there wasn't a mint on my pillow when I moved into my new room, but hey . . .
I'll probably pop in again a couple of times before tomorrow if anything interesting happens. But I did want to mention that this place isn't only posh--it's a model for good health care delivery. The staff just love working here--they love the administrator, they're wonderful with the patients, and there's no hierarchy (no "I'm a nurse and your a tech, so I'm more important than you are" crap). The guy who wheels people around is considered a vital part of the team, and treated accordingly. And from what I gather, it doesn't cost any more to run BHH than any standard hospital--in part because patients get better faster. What an concept!
