Oscar Stops By For A Visit

The day I found out I needed Open Heart surgery, I had gone into the hospital about 6AM for a procedure called a Heart Catheter. They put a camera in an artery in my thigh, and it snaked up to my heart to take a peek. They put me under, and I woke up after an hour or less with a pain in my punctured thigh and some pretty pics of my heart. They were looking for signs of heart disease, but they found my little problem instead. They decided they needed a second opinion via a MRI, right there in the hospital. The earliest they could get me in for the MRI was about 5:30 PM that night. So I was stuck in the hospital all day and into the night.

 When I finally got in for the MRI, it turned out I was going to be in the machine for 90 minutes. I was laying flat on my back inside a small tube of a machine, with the machine making loud grinding and bumping noises and every few minutes the tech would tell me to hold my breath for 30 or 60 seconds. I was not allowed to move even a tiny bit for all 90 minutes. I was very tired, still a little drugged from the first procedure, very claustrophobic, and also a little scared about facing surgery.

Pretty long into the MRI, fighting to stay awake and not move, I had this weird vision. I saw my long deceased Dad, and he told me 'Everything will be all right Son'. I know, weird, probably drug induced, and surely all in my imagination. But still, it actually helped me get through the dang crazy procedure.

 Cheers, Nicholas

2014 - Post Script

I came across this picture of my Dad at his work from years and years ago. On the back, it mentions that he worked in the Imaging Lab at the V.A. hospital at one time. Interesting, in light of the story I just told, no?