5 weeks after cardiac arrest and survery for ICD

September 24th 2009 was when I had a cardiac arrest on the way to a wedding rehearsal photo shoot. I was discharge from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre on October 2nd 2009 after nine days in hospital. Recovery from my cardiac arrest has been slow and steady but as to how much memory lost I am not able to tell.

After being discharge from the hospital my driver license was suspended by the Cardiologist. That licenses suspension literary means I was grounded and homebound since the discharged except for the occasional visit to my family physician and specialists.

Out in the park

It was a beautiful day after all. Mrs Tee is in the states with her friends doing a bus tour of Boston, New York and Washington. As for me I was out in the park in Mississauga. I was able to catch some of the air show from a distance but most of all enjoying the view.

Like father like daughter

Just took a look at my daughter schedule for September and and felt that I am not much better. Started to work 2 and half days now and will be back full time by mid September. This month's schedule is bad. Weekend schedule for September:-

Sept 12 - Community BBQ with our MP
Sept 13 - Jr. worship speaker and badminton at 4:00 pm
Sept 19 - Crime awaremess at City hall
Sept 20 - Church and Badminton
Sept 26 - Mayor BBQ
Sept 27 - Wedding .

Doing more hours at work

It is more than 5 months since my surgery. There are tightness in my chest where the surgery was perform otherwise I am feeling fine. My short term medical leave is running out soon and will have to go into my long term medical leave. However, I am not planning to enrole into the long term medical leave. I feeling really well and want to consider going back full time at work. My team has been kind to me and reduced my work load so far and I do not see any change when I am back full time.

A monthe ago I start 3 half days work schedule and last week I have extended it to 2 and a half days work. Starting next week I will be doing 3 and a half days work.

Helping my friend M.P.P. Peter Fonseca at this community BBQ

It has been a busy Sunday on August 23th 2009. Yeu-Tin and I both attended church in the morning than came home to change and pick up my camera to help Peter Fonseca the member of parliment for the province of Ontario in Mississauga East for Cooksville. Yeu-Tin help out with serving salad while I was helping Peter with the photos. It was busy at his Annual Free Community BBQ. More than 3000 local residence from his riding were there in force. Definitely the the word free help to bring the crowds regardless of the long line up for food. Hopefully, next year we do not make the same mistake as this year having choosen the same date as Ramadan for the community BBQ. Next year Peter promise to ensure that the date choosen are not during the Ramadan.

My first week at work.

Started to work on Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week for half a day starting July 20th 2009. I actually started my short-term sick leave on March 20th 2009 because that was my scheduled surgery but was postponed to March 25th 2009. So I was actually off for four months. Time certainly passes by very fast. So far the workload has been light but I am not sure it how long it will last before the task start to pile in. Will update the blog as soon as I have something new to add.

Back to work very slowly

It is almost four months since my surgery and I will be slowly re-integrating my back to work schedules into my routine. This coming Monday July 20th 2009 I will return to work every alternate days in the afternoon. I will still be continuing with my cardio rehab every morning.

Although I feel fine but I still feel tightness on my chest where the surgery took place and some funny sensation on my right shoulder blade. My blood test result taken in June was amazingly good and my family doctor Dr. Rodney Ng was very pleases with the outcome. That also mean I will have to stay on the same course in the way I eat.

I have been eating really tasteless home cook meal. The portion is always one-third vegetable, one-third grain and one-third protein (meat, fish or egg) for lunch and dinner. The meal is generally cooked with little oil and with no salt added. Breakfast consist of one cup of cooked steel cut oatmeal and a piece of toast with almond butter spread and a cup of coffee. That is right one cup of coffee in the morning and a second cup in the afternoon. I have actually cut my ten cups a day coffee down to two.
I still enjoy eating out from time to time but with guarded sensitivity on the food ordered. Usually, I prefer lean chicken with no skin, steak or most likely fish if broiled. Working on half a day on every alternate day mean I could still eat at home before going to work. However, soon or later I will have to work full day and I will have to bring my lunch to work and fine an alternative. I will plan for that when it is time for me to go back to work full-time.

Mississauga Canada Day celebration

You got to be there to believe it. There were thousands of people at the City Centre and by night there was an explosive fireworks show. Police close much of the road around the city centre and people were walking all over from building to building to check out all the activities.

Cardio Rehab and Canada day celebration plan

Last Wednesday was my second Cardio rehab session and I have no trouble with the training. As I left the session we were given homework to do. It is the same set of walking exercise I have been doing during the last two sessions.

I am still able to maintain my blood pressure, blood sugar and weight. This coming Wednesday there is no rehab session because it is a national holiday. However, I will be out walking as much as I could for my exercise and enjoy the Canada Day celebration at Mississauga City Hall. At the same time I am hoping to take as many photographs as possible for this year Canada Day celebration.

Definitely not ready to go back to work yet

My last visit to my doctor (Dr. Rodney Ng) was a week ago. I had to do a complete blood test every quarter and the first was last week. Since I did not receive any call from my doctor’s office it must mean good news. On June 10th 2009 I was at Trillium West Health Center for my first stress test for the Cardio Rehab. After paying $15.00 for parking at the hospital I was told that all the paper work was not sent to the center for my test and nearly had to be re-scheduled (almost – just remind me of my cancellation on March 20th 2009 open heart surgery).

My next appointment will be on Jun 19th 2009 to go over my 12 rehab sessions. I will have to make an appointment with my cardiologist sometime next week and dentist too.

I am still able to maintain my weight at 163 lbs. Not much changes in my diet since being discharge from the hospital. I still keep a rigid 2 hours of walking daily and waiting for completion of my cardio rehab to start running to prepare myself for the eventual return to active badminton games.

On my last visit to the doctor I did ask him if I can start work soon but was told that I am definitely not ready and fully healed to return to work yet.

Enjoying the trail in the Park (Mississauga).

Today I have an enjoyable day at the hiking trail near my place. The trail is 5 minutes drive from my house. The only regret is that I did not bring along my telephoto lens. There were so much wild life in the park and birds that I was not able to shot with my camera. I went there to take photo for the scenery not anticipating any wild life or birds.

Below are some of the photos.

Downy Woodpecker on a down tree.

License to drive.

Today mark the end of the sixth weeks after surgery. I am getting a lot better but under the current situation with the outbreak of the H1N1 flu I have to be very careful. The exterior wound is completely healed but the internal wound would still take a while. I visited my heart surgeon yesterday and was encourage hearing that all is well with me and last but not least I can drive effective immediately. After a long six weeks of parking my cars in the drive way I am finally license to drive again. Good thing I can drive because Yeu-Tin has a doctor’s appointment at 4:00 pm yesterday.

Things I can and cannot do: -

Cannot carry or lift anything over 20 lbs.
Continue with my walking exercise.
Be careful with my chest, as it is still not completely heal. (May take up to 1 year).
Cannot participate in any active sport s until 3 months after my surgery date.
Watch my diet
Drink not more than 3 cups of coffee a day. (If any one with Tim Hortons stock this might impact you portfolio).

Doing well

Visited my cardiologist and GP (Dr. Rodney Ng) on Wednesday April 22nd 2009 and both doctors are very please with my progress. I am now about 162 lbs or 163 lbs and I am able to wear my pants from the late 80s (waist size 32 inches). Only hope is that I do not gain weight later.My next appointed is with Dr Lee Errett my heart surgeon. If all goes well I should be able to drive after my appointment (about 6 weeks after my surgery).

Updates

It is now almost a month since my surgery. Most of the time I am staying indoor with the occasion walk to the park. At least I am getting to know my neighbourhood better. So far I have been blessed with Yeu-Tin taking time off from work to be with me. Taking the advice from the medical professional, I don’t not even dare to take or try to lift anything remotely looks heavy. So Yeu-Tin has been my perpetual slave lending her hand and strength to do what I cannot and dare not do.
For now I have been grounded and handicapped because I cannot drive for six weeks after surgery. On the bright side I only have two and a half weeks left to freedom. Next Wednesday I have two doctor’s appointments and then the final consultation with my heart surgeon on May 4th 2009. Hopefully, I will have the good news that my surgery wound are healing well.
With all the time in the world I was starting to get bored and really had hard time to kill time. With a piano and a keyboard at home, I decided to take up piano lesson from book. So far I am doing not too bad. Hope, by the end on the month I will be able to learn to read musical notation. (Tried once before but give up).
What I have learned during this difficult time is that how to be humble and to accept the generosity of friends. In the past I have always enjoyed the joy of helping others. It truly gives me a lot of satisfaction and joy but on the other hand I am not the one to receive the assistance from others no matter how bad I felt. This time I realized that my selfishness is robbing all my good friends the joy of helping. So pushing my macho image aside I decided to humble myself to accept all my friends help. I will definitely have to send out tons of thank you cards later but it was a right decision.

A long recovery

It is more than two and a half weeks since my surgery and I am recovering very fast. Today I was at church attending my first Easter Sunday service since surgery. Everyone who knew me was somewhat surprise that I was alert and able to attend church. Other commented on my weight. I have lost some weight before going into surgery but right after surgery I gain some fluid weight. As of today I have lost a total 20 lbs and struggling to lost another 20 lbs more. Standing at 5fts 51/2 inches tall my ideal weight is about 145 lbs. Currently I am about 165 lbs. The next 20 lbs that I needed to shed will be a real struggle. My appetites are very good even all the food I have been eating is salt less and tasteless. The biggest hurdle is to reduce the amount of food I am eating. I have to settle with empty stomach a few evening at around 10:00pm and hoping that I will get around those problem and not yield to temptation.

Cardiac Rehabilitation

Yesterday (April 8th 2009) was the first time visited my GP Dr. Rodney Ng after the close call and the 2nd visited to St. Michael Hospital. This visit is to have the stapler removed from my chest. The nurse from the office just asked me to lie still while she used a $5:00 stapler remover we bought at St. Michael Hospital to removed all the metal from my chest. It only takes about 5 minutes and all of it was removed (no pain).

After that was the consultation with Dr. Rodney Ng. He informed me that he would make arrangement for the 1 phase of my recovery process. He will schedule me as soon as all arrangement can be make for Cardiac Rehabilitation.

Today Mrs. Tee and I went out for a short walk to build up my strength. Unfortunately, it was still a bit cold. We take a short walk in the park right across form our home. I am still exhausted easily so I am taking it easy to slowly build my stamina.

Air Lift to St. Michael

Good to be back again. Sorry for no update lately because I was just re-released from St. Michael Hospital on Saturday at 10:00 am.

As in the previous update in this blog you will know that I was release by St. Michael Hospital on Monday March 30th 2009. Everything was going fine until that night. The cough kept me awake whole night.

Melissa arrived from the airport late on Tuesday morning and I am glad she home to take good care of me. Melissa’s drop Mrs. Tee to the GO station to go to work and than quickly return home to be with me. She prepared all the meals and my medicine and during through the day always constantly staying by my bedside.

That evening, Alan and Liz (close family friend) visited us and spend a good evening with us. Although I was tire, I was unable to shut my eye for some rest, even for 5 minutes. Tuesday night was a very bad night for me. I have not slept for 24 hrs and trying desperately to sleeping but the coughing kept waking me up. The next morning I inform Mrs. Tee the situation is now critical and we needed a solution to fix my sleep.

At 7:45 am on Wednesday morning (April fool day) Melissa drove Mrs. Tee and me to Dr. Rodney Ng office hoping the see him first in the morning. Unfortunately, Dr Rodney Ng will not be in his office till 9:30 am. Dr. Rodney Ng associate Dr Venturi was in the office but was fully book and unable to see me. However, after a few cell call we were able to see Dr. Venturi right away. After the initial investigation and consultation Dr. Venturi prescribe me Apo-Loranepam and send me home.

At home I took the medicine and tried to sleep, however that did not help and by mid-afternoon the situation is bad. I knew I was getting agitated easily and not my self. The following summary is from Melissa and Mrs. Tee’s statements because I have no recollection my behavior after 12:00 noon.

I was told I was acting erratic and Mrs. Tee was able to make another appointment with Dr. Rodney Ng for 6:30 pm after his last appointment. However, sometime at 3:00 pm the situation turn worse and Melissa and Mrs. Tee once again communicated with Dr Rodney Ng their intention to send me to the emergency but Dr. Rodney ask them to bring me to see him immediately. Once at the doctor’s office I was usher to see Dr. Rodney, and after examining me he request an ambulance to send me to Mississauga General Hospital. However, the ambulance sends me to Credit Valley Hospital. I was later told by my wife that I was at Credit Valley Hospital at 4:00 pm and by the time I was somewhat stabilized. When I come around all I heard is that they are using the helicopter to send me to St. Michael.

Sometime after that I was strapped and transported to the helicopter pad to be air lifted to St. Michael Hospital. After giving me a few short instruction I was place in the helicopter and send to St. Michael Hospital.
At St. Michael I was able to recall all the familiar nurses placing oxygen mask over me. I was able to have a good night sleep that night. By the next morning I woke up at 9:00 am to see my younger sister Lee by my bedside.

Later Dr Finley who was my constant physician at St. Michael during the post surgery care came by to inform me that there was a huge amount of access fluid in my lungs that he needed drained. After the routine check up he informed me that all is well and that, he will get the nurse to clean my dressing.

That afternoon Dr. Finley return to drain those access fluid in my lungs and he showed me a jar more than 1-liter fill with black fluid that was taken from my lungs. After that my breathing improved.

For now I will stop my writing and continue with more updates later. As you can see my recovery is progress steadily.

First day home from surgery.

Think the doctor just stopped my heart, lungs and everything else for 2 and 1/2 hrs then restarted them, That is what happen to me. Re-learning all the skills taken for granted. Just one step is like a 100 meter dash, Will write more later. Happy to be back,

Surgery in now set for March 25th 2009

The time is getting close for me to be under the knife. If I sound naive, that is because I do not really have any experience with hospital at all. This will be my first. I was asked this question once, are you prepared? My answer is yes for the Lord is with me. Am I afraid? Definitely, because this is a major surgery and I may never wake up again but I am at peace. I will be ok but in a whole lot of pain by tomorrow if God willing. If all work out I hape to be out of the hospital by next week. The risk is 1% and I am hoping Murphy is on holiday (murphy's law).

Surgery postpone to March 24th or 35th 2009

Arrived at the Hospital at 9:45 am this morning March 20th 2009 an all prepared for the surgery. Stop all food intakes after 8:00 pm dinner and stop all fluid at 11:45 pm on Thursday night March 19th 2009. At the same time I had to scrub myself the night before with special antiseptics soap from the hospital. I had to repeat the same thing first thing in the morning again. Took my medicine with 1/2 a slip of water.

After checking in at the reception and having my wrist arm band taken care off I was ask to put the hospital gurney. After waiting in the registration and preparation area till 1.00 pm I was move to the pre-operation room. There I wait till 3:40 pm when the surgeon came to tell me the bad new that the surgery was cancel. Knowing I had nothing since the night before they brought my lunch. I change and ate the lunch than its time to go home.
Hopefully the doctor’s office will call me on Monday, March 23rd 2009 to confirm the next appointment for my surgery. Dr. Errett, Lee had stated it would be either Tuesday March 24th 2009 or Wednesday March 25th 2009. I knew he only had surgery on Tuesday and Friday but most likely he is making an exception in my case to operate on me on Wednesday if the Tuesday appointment are not possible.

Receiving message from old friend

Once in a while, I am surprise to meet up with old friends. A few years ago on my trip to Singapore I was able to meet up with an old schoolmate from SFI in Malacca. Lately an old neighbor from my hometown in Malaysia posted a comment in my blog. Well that is a welcome surprise.
Church family photo: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5853690&l=b11f3&id=896955315

Pre Surgery meeting

On March 11th 2009 I went to St. Michael Hospital for my pre-admission appointment and was impressed by their services. I check-in at 7:20 am and started the pre-registration process. After completing the pre-registration I was informed to make my self comfortable at the waiting area for a nurse to take me to the next stage of the pre-Surgery examination. The staff also apologized that it may be a long wait and that there is a Tim Horton coffee near the entrance of the Hospital should I wish to get anything while waiting. In the meantime I am to fill up a personal health check questionnaire for the nurse who will call out my name to get me in the waiting area.

After about 15 minutes a nurse calls me and started to take my weight and height. Than we go to a room and she told me to watch a video from the hospital regarding the purpose of the visited. The nurse return after the video completed and told me the list of test and who will be in and out of the room to talk to me. First off she went over the questionnaire I have just completed while waiting in the waiting room. However, I was not able to assist her with one of the prescription I had for my high blood pressure. Nonetheless she inform me not to worry as she will request the attending pharmacist to help me track down the medicine. She also handled me the agenda for the day during my visit and tick off the first item she had completed to me. She also informed me that someone will inform me what to do through out my visit.

The next item on the list was blood sample. As she stepped out of the office she informed me that a lab technician will be in shortly to take some blood samples followed by an ECG technician and the anesthetist. The only surprise was a visit from a research team from the hospital coming in to explain to me their interest in me to be part of the sturdy and research. However, their research will need me to donate 2 heart tissue samples taken during the surgery for their research and for that they will required my consent. I promise them I will take a look at it.

After the 2 research scientists left the room someone from the blood team came in to explain to me about the possibility of blood transfusion during surgery and the risk of having it. However, I was also given a pamphlet by the nurse regarding the blood transfusion already. Once we are done the technician help me with my belonging and walk me to the x-ray room for a chest x-ray. Before leaving she informed me that after the x-ray I should change my hospital gurney to my own clothing and again in the waiting room for someone to take us to a room to view another video regarding cardio surgery. This video will prepare us for the surgery and what to expect after surgery and recovery. I found the material very helpful and useful.

After the video a register post operation nurse coming in to distribute a bottle of antiseptic to clean ourselves the night before and on the morning of the surgery.
She also talks to us about the ICU care and visitation during ICU.

Meeting the Cardio and Thoracic surgeon

Meeting the Cardio and Thoracic surgeon

Finally, I met my surgeon. Dr Lee E. Errett is the Professor of Surgery and Chief for the Division of Cardivascular and Thoracic Surgery at St Michael's Hospital. The surgery dateset for March 20th 2009 pending any emergency that may required Dr. Errett. The procedure is CABG (or commonly know as cabbage) and it will be rested heart surgery. However, I will be going to the hospital on March 11 for the pre-admission check-up. What the visit include are:-
1) Nursing assessment and to complete all the necessary hospital registration information.
2) Pre and post operative teaching and information about my surgery.
3) History and physical with a MD.
Until than I will keep everyone up todate to the best of my ability.

Appointment the Dr L. Errett

Well, I will have more update Wednesday. My heart surgeon call me today for a pre-surgery consultation at 10:00 am at St. Michael Hospital. You can read more about my heart sutgeon by just googling his name. I am still feeling fine excepted for a slight irritation from the angiogram on my groin.

Lucky they found out now

Well I did my angiogram but the resulted was not good. 3 of my ateries ar cloggged. The doctor recommended surgery and I will be consulting my doctor and let them tell me the next course of acction.

My poor heart

During my recent visit to my doctor I have be complainning pain in the chest and was referred to a cardiologist. After my stress ECG and later nucleus ECG it is now comfirm there is possitively some blockage somewhere in the system. So on Friday Feb 27th 2009 I will be admitted to St Michaels Hospital for a coronary angiogram. This is the first time in my life I will be staying overnight at the hospital.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year (2009)
On January 3rd 2009 Nathan, Melissa, my wife and me finally have our first family lunch together at Kelsey Restaurant. We have been very fortunate in 2009 to celebrate Christmas for 2008 and New Year as a family. Melissa has been to Japan for more than a year and having a family gathering is almost impossible due to the distance. However, Melissa was able to have a Christmas holiday and was able to fly home for 2 weeks to be with us. Finally we wish you and your family a happy new year.