The Road to Recovery - A Yin-Yang Year

general Dec 20, 2008

You know the old Chinese curse -- may you live in interesting times? It has been an interesting year--some great things have happened and some setbacks, too. It has been a classic Yin-Yang Year.

Yesterday, I spent 6 hours knocked out while a cardiologist burned 80 spots inside my heart. It was the third procedure of the year--trying to fix a problem that cropped upYe a year ago when I began feeling my heart running like a rough carburetor.

I went through two of these surgeries in Tampa, and had no idea a top cardiologist was also here in the Quad Cities -- Dr. Michael Giudici.

He spent hours searching the inside of my heart for rogue electrical activity, and he found a lot that survived the first two procedures in Tampa. He burns the spots with high-frequency radio waves, severing the connection along the electrical pathways that cause the heart to beat so erratically. I've only been in a-fib 20% of the time since the 2nd surgery, and I could live with that and take aspirin or another blood thinner for the rest of my life, but I went ahead with the third surgery in an attempt to return to normal activity and no medication.

The first photo shows me talking with a nurse before the surgery, with wires hooked up to an EKG -- and in the 2nd photo, I'm trying to wake up post-op. That anesthesia really kicks your butt.

It's hard to believe that you could have 80 spots burned in your heart and survive. It's even harder to believe that I was back home by 7:30 last night--feeling like I'd been hit with a large hammer but determined to recover.

My kua are very sore and tender--that's where the instruments are inserted, then threaded through veins into the heart. It'll take a week or two for them to heal, but I should be practicing tai chi, hsing-i and bagua by Monday--very carefully.

This past year has seen the birth of my online kung-fu school and the production of some new DVDs. It has included a new career direction after losing a job in Tampa, and a return to the Quad Cities. But I've never been happier working at something I love so much, and Nancy and I love being back with friends and family. It looks like I'll begin the year with this little heart problem behind me, with another new DVD out, and some independent contractor work doing some "new media" projects for a large local company.

There are so many burned spots in my heart, it will take a few weeks for the inflammation to die down and the scar tissue to form. I'll know for sure if it worked in about a month, but the doctor is very optimistic and as I sit in my recliner today, taking it easy and watching TV, my heart is beating normally and it looks like 2009 will be a great year for kung-fu.

--by Ken Gullette

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The Road to Recovery - A Yin-Yang Year

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