weirdjam wrote:John Radcliffe best place for that type of surgery imho.
However Get Well Soon John! Hope you get on your feet and and into the car soon enough!
Should this be in the lounge?
Yes, it was Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.
>> Excuse my ignorance, but what was the operation? bypass <<
>> Wow, major stuff going on there, but 4% chance of death, thats really good considering the operation. <<
So what exactly do they bypass??? I can imagine its good to bypass any part of the heart, I mean, its all there for a reason!!!
>>Do they bypass a blockage by putting a new bit of tubing In???<<
>>Do they bypass a blockage by putting a new bit of tubing In???
Do not read on if you're a bit wossname..
They do indeed but, a 'used' ( not new) bit of tubing to bypass blockage(s). The donor part is .... usually a 'used' vein or other blood vessel from another part of your own blood circulation system ....
for the all important compatability/rejection reasons I guess. In my case the donor vein came from my lower left calf area. I have a 'donor' removal operation scar about 30cm long on the inner calf. This is actually larger than the operation scar which is big enough.
The heart muscle ~ the heart is a huge muscle pump not dissimilar in function to the oil pump in your car's engine ...
~ and requires its own regular oxygen rich blood supply which needs to be stepped up with any increased muscle exercise.
Any increase in muscular action
anywhere in the body will place extra demands on the heart pump rate to supply more oxygen rich blood. That includes supplying blood to itself ~ mostly via the
Coronary Arteries. The heart will require more oxygen rich blood to do this which it gets from what are known as Coronary Arteries. Over time and subject to a number of conditions, these all important Coronary Arteries become narrowed or even blocked over the years. The dreaded Chloresterol being a prime cause suspect here.
Before Christmas, in Cheltenham General Hospital I had what is known as an Angiogram. In a nutshell, this process provides a 'living' picture of heart and it's coronary arteries. A few seconds or so after 'my' picture appeared on the screen the heart specialist immediately identified and pointed to two blocked and one partially blocked Coronary Arteries in my system. The process was performed under local anaesthetic and I was able to watch the screen throughout. Did not feel a thing ~ fascinating although obviously worrying stuff.
Back to the bypass:
That donor vein is divided up into the required sections to bypass any blockage by delivering blood from elsewhere (but closeby) in the system ~ a bypass supply.
Prior to my operation, I also volunteered to have my system Magnetically Resonace Scanned for research purposes. I agreed that any of the couple of thousand magnetic images taken could be used for education, research or whatever. These images can be strung together to give a living moving picture of any part of my scanned system. I was shown a number of my own images including 'moving' sequences. Fascinating ~ I had no idea just how extensive and large are some of the components in your average blood system.
Thanks for your continuing good wishes folks. I am not out of the woods just yet, far from it but each passing day shows improvement which has to be reassuring.
The whole process continues and I have nothing but praise for the numerous individuals at every level in our much maligned National Health Service who have looked after me and continue to do so.
It's a good job I don't take everything I see and hear in the media as gospel about our NHS. A service which should be treasured.
).
......Arrrrrggghhhhh.........
take it easy in future! 
The infermary was a horrible place unless you are/were 200 years old. The place smelt of death (could of been the fact that i worked near the morge there)
