Six weeks ago I was adjusting to my new ICU bed after waking up from Quadruple Bypass Heart Surgery

[Tom Rinaldo]

45. Any club with you in it can't be all bad, lol.

Thanks. There is something deeply unsettling going from a normal sense of time where it always seems there are endless weeks ahead of us to get around to doing whatever it is that we think we should get around to doing at some point, to a sudden shrinking of the time horizon, whereby delaying.even another day or two could make ever doing anything againtoo late!

It sounds like you were really a ticking time bomb back then with that ticking just loud enough to fortunately get your attention! I was pretty stunned when, after my second test gave discouraging returns, my what I thought was a very reasonable request to schedule the logical next procedure (angioplasty with the option of open heart surgery depending on what they found) for 8 days later, instead of for the next day, was out of hand rebuffed. What do you mean it can't wait a week, I thought? I feel fine...

I was supposed to cover some shifts for a co-worker that week who couldn't cancel her travel plans without losing money. Surely I could check in for treatment as soon as she returned instead? Uh, no, no I could not. It needed to happen tomorrow. That was pretty damn sobering. We grow so accustomed to counting on some slack, but in the realm of life and death there isn't always slack available.

I'm glad I was given enough time to absorb that lesson. Yes, it's a gift, one that I am very very appreciative of and taking very seriously.