April 9, 2008
Kathy booked me a session with a therapist this afternoon. All the doctors have warned me I will probably get depressed during my recovery (some brain chemical supposedly gets depleted) and it wouldn't hurt to have a sounding board outside my home.

Got the medical files from Kingman last night. A phone book sized swatch of papers. Kathy started to read them then said it is still too traumatic to her. I picked them up this morning and read a couple pages with much interest (mainly because I don't remember being there):

A Supine Gentleman's Infarction
"E11 on scene to find patient lying supine on the floor, in the old Elks Lodge, and was pulseless/apneic.

"Bystanders stated they started CPR PTA. No CPR witnessed on arrival. Patient information obtained by a bystander talking to the patient's wife on the phone. Patient was pale, dry and warm."

The rest is medical lingo beyond my reach. Anyway they handed off to Kngman Regional Emergency Room and here's the attendant doctor's notes:

"The patient is a 61-year-old gentleman who was visiting from Phoenix to town here. He has nonprevious clinical history. He was admitted through the emergency room when he was in a music rehearsal group when he suddenly collapsed, but prior to that he developed some chest pain but he ignored it and then suddenly he collapsed on the floor. He woke up shortly, 3 to 4 minutes after that. In the emergency room he collapsed again and was found to have acute anterior lateral wall myocardial infarction. He had a cardiac arrest and they tried to intubate him. They could not, so they did emergency tracheostomy on him."

It goes on in bloody detail, but suffice to say this supine gentleman appreciates the infarction work and the four stents on the left anterior descending coronary artery (which was totally occluded at the distal branch). Which reminds me, if we do another gig Charlie Waters recommends calling this one:

The Exits: Back for another stent in Kingman.

Ha. Too funny.

"A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues."
—Cicero