Velociworld

Key Update

I was very comforted by the fact that so many of you Intrepids enjoyed my tale of lobbyist whores and eyepatch underwear (whatever the hell that is... someone bring some to the next blogmeet. I'll wear it. With my dirndl). I was even more comforted that even more of you suggested I STFU and give you an update on Key. You latter types are known in the blogging business as "game changers."

So: Key is recovering well, albeit slowly. She's still suffering from overall pain and nausea, and occasional migraines, although the migraines are diminishing. She's also extremely weak, keeping her confined to bed for the most part.

You know those stories about people who say "Man, I had no idea I was feeling so bad! Musta been gradual! The day after I gots my stent I felt like a million bucks! Let's go find some strippers!"? I think those stories are made up. Of course, having what is essentially a four-inch piece of flex garden hose shimmied up your arteries would tend to make one ill, and recovery an incremental, baby-steps process. All in all, we consider ourselves lucky, and blessed.

In fact, technology proceeds at such a pace in this incredible nation that only a year or two ago they would have had to crack open the old thorax for such a stent placement. But Dr. Kasirajan was one of a handful of cardiovascular surgeons to perform the clinical trials for these stents, and this procedure, over the last 14 months. For him to be at Emory was akin to opening your garage to find an angel inside. An angel with a brain like David McCallum in The Sixth Finger. And the delicate skilled fingers of Franz Liszt.

It is simply amazing what our health care is capable of. I'm very excited about the next phase, too, wherein we can all read about these medical marvels as they are performed on members of Congress, whilst the rest of us lay forgotten on gurneys by the service elevators, being poked and prodded by little ACORN daemons.

Below the fold is an exciting graphical representation of the stent used:

If I were to create a robotic rooster it might look like this.

Apparently there are already two brands of this stent on the market. Dr. K. went with the Gore. The same people who make Gore-Tex, although I don't believe you'll find these things in bins by the Vibram-soled chukka boots at REI.

Ya'll go over to Key's now and send her some sugar.