Sir, you are full of holes

The Percoset Grins

In December I went through surgery to replace my ICD. ICD stands for Internal Cardio Defibrillator. You know the paddles in hospital shows?" Clear!" Imagine those, but implanted inside the body. It's pretty amazing tech but still not something that is often put into otherwise healthy 30 year olds. As one of my physicians once quipped: "It used to be that the patients would expire before the device did." Kinda grim but that's the reality of being on the cutting edge of medical technology. 

So it was a huge bummer but no big surprise to find out that the wire connecting my device to my heart was recalled. It's like when they recall your car because they find the brakes on your model don't work like they are supposed to. Except in this case, the brakes are inside your veins and attached to your heart. Awesome. 

This is your band-aid face after they rip
off the  band-aid that covers half of your chest.

Fast forward some time. I'm now done with a surgery in which they cut out and removed my old device and wire and installed a brand-new tech called a S-ICD. No more wires in the veins; we are now entirely sub-cutaneous baby!! I have four new holes that are slowly healing and a big device slowly settling into a cavity made in my armpit.


It's been both a terrible and wonderful month and a half now recuperating from my surgery. On the one hand we've been going rather stir-crazy being cooped up without the energy to get after it in the mountains. On the other hand, it has allowed me to advance some projects I've been dreaming about, like writing and home brewing more. Winter is slowly passing as I read, play (gently) with my daughter and settle in to a pace a bit slower than we are used to. 

Big things are ahead though. While hanging around waiting for Yvie as she enjoyed her climbing class today I started eyeing the bouldering wall. Deciding to see how far the recovery has come I walked over to a gently overhanging space in a corner of the gym. Slowly, gingerly, I reached up and wrapped my fingers around two juggy holds. I kicked my feet up onto two footholds and just hung there for a bit.

 Closing my eyes, I let the noise of the gym fade to the back of my mind and let myself be transported. For a few brief seconds, I wasn't in downtown Boulder on a snowy day, with children happily chirping in the background. I imagined myself on The Diamond, El Cap, somewhere with granite under my fingertips and wind in my ears. 

Spring is coming, I am healing. Not long now.