PART TWO: THE HOSPITAL STAY

      In the recovery room, the first thing I remember was feeling hungry. Of course I was terrified to eat anything, knowing that food was what most likely got me here. I once watched the Morgan Spurlock movie Super Size Me, particularly the part where after having McDonalds for breakfast lunch and dinner, Spurlock tosses his cookies. I turned to Tara and said, "he calls this a film project, I call it "Every Tuesday while I was in college."  To get me to stop drinking soda, I would have had to check into the Betty Ford Clinic. And I started most mornings at work with a jug of Snapple and an egg sandwich.  And besides from running around with Timmy's soccer team, I didn't much exercise anymore.
         I always thought I was safe, because, despite my poor eating habits, I never once smoked, I stopped boozing after Timmy was born, and as I so eloquently told that nurse, I've never done drugs. I was 41 years old. This couldn't happen to me.
Until it did.

And now, the only thing I could do was make sure that it didn't happen again.

          But that battle would start in a few days. For now, I had to recover. So I spent the night in the ICU. When I first got there, I couldn't believe it was past midnight, all sense of time had been lost. All told, from the time the ambulance came till that moment, was about three hours And as I said, I was feeling hungry. So the nurse gave me some graham crackers which tasted great and filled me up. Then I managed to doze off. .
         A nurse came in a couple of hours later and asked me if I wanted to go to the bathroom. I said yes and she handed me a bottle. Man, you don't know what helpless feels like till you have to try to pee while lying on your back. Plus every couple of hours, they drew blood. I'd just be getting some zzz's and I'd feel a stick in my arm. That, and my BP was being taken every hour. So I felt my arm getting squeezed. But after having a heart attack, that kind of pain is nothing.
          Tara came to see me early Tuesday morning. She had gotten in touch with my family and told Timmy what had happened. I felt awful, having put everybody through this, But I was still alive and I was feeling better already. I really felt like I was out of the woods, especially when the nurses allowed me to sit in a chair. The only pain I felt was a dull pain in my leg where the incision was made.
         But while I was sitting in the chair, the pain in my leg really started to throb. Tara asked me what was wrong and I told her my leg was hurting. All of the sudden, I felt like I couldn't breathe and things started to go dark. I said to Tara, "am I gonna make it?" and then.....

       The first thing I remember was one of the nurses saying, "Bill there are better ways to get women to fawn all over you."  Another nurse said "Oh, your sweaty, lets dry you off." Another said, "He must have spilled something on this shorts" Yeah, thanks for trying not to embarrass me, but that's what we call in the Gallagher house "An accident". For the first time in my nearly 42 years of life. I had fainted.
       According to Jimmy, a former cop turned nurse practitioner, (and one of the smartest medical people I've ever met) my blood pressure had taken a sudden drop, causing me to pass out. Tara said I was out cold for about two minutes. And now I was scared again.
        I got back into bed and tried to relax, but it was hard. I was wondering if I would ever get better.

       A CT Scan with and without contrast would show that everything was OK. After the CT scan, my parents, Tara and Timmy came to see me. It was good to see the big guy. He came up to me and said "Hey Dad, I heard you had a heart attack." Yep, you heard right. His next question sent my mom into laughter, "So Where are all the doctors?" All morning, Timmy heard I was in the hospital with a battery of doctors working on me. So where the hell are they? as my mom interpreted Timmy's question. He went on to tell my mom and dad that if  they needed him to, he could interpret my monitor for them. Thank God he came to see me, he is my world.

       But when they left, and I was sitting there by myself, the enormity of what had happened hit me. That and just laying there by myself, with this melancholy music playing on the TV, I just kind of lost it. I didn't want anyone to see me or hear me, but one of the nurses did, and she came to make sure I was OK. "Look you just went through a  traumatic event, this is perfectly natural." Nothing felt natural at all. I was dependent on strangers (albeit they were the most wonderful nurses I could ever hope to have) I couldn't walk or even stand. This was the worst.

          The TV in the ICU only had 4 channels. One played that awful music, the second was an channel with hospital info, the third was tips on recovering from heart trauma and the fourth was Telecare. Telecare is the official channel of the Catholic Church, and at 6 PM, they replayed the 12 noon Mass from St.Patrick's Cathedral. I couldn't believe what a comfort watching Mass on TV was. Tara always says there are no atheists in the ICU. She's right.

        And even the programming after Mass was interesting. There was a show about people who went away and came back to the church which at least passed the time. Then there was a show about the Knights of Columbus. The host interviewed Grand Knights of different chapters, and on this night, they interviewed the Grand Knight of the Knights in New Hyde Park, and Brother Thomas Liddy, (who I'm assuming is the father of my Postie brother Tom Liddy). That was pretty cool.

        Then they had a priest hosting a cooking show, and at that point I fell asleep. The next thing I know, they were waking me up to take me to the step down unit. I was thrilled to be going somewhere else. The light breeze that I felt as they were wheeling me out felt like I was sticking my face out of a car going 70 MPH. When I got to the step down unit, there was lots of good news. The first being that I was somewhat free to walk, and my first walk was to the bathroom. Secondly the TV had more channels, so SportsCenter here I came.

         I didn't sleep much that night, but it didn't matter, I had my TV and my ability to take short walks and I was starting to feel like a human being again.


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           The next day, I met my neighbor in the bed next to me. What a gentleman he was. (I'm not going to mention names and if I do they'll be aliases because I don't want to violate any privacy {or HIPPA Laws as we say in the biz}) But my bed neighbor was really cool. And he helped me get through my day.
          As did the nurses who took care of me. Yes, it helped that I was married to one of their colleagues, but I saw what they did for everybody and I have to tell you these nurses are amazing. I can't say enough about how well I was treated there.
           On Wednesday morning, I was sent down for an echo-cardiogram, and the technician asked me to raise my arms over my head. What came out from under my arms was to quote Vincent Price from Thriller, "the foulest stench". My father in law once told Tara and I a story about when he was stationed in Colorado during his army years, and he was in a general store standing behind some folks who obviously hadn't bathed in some time. "They were RIPE!" he said. I that's the voice I heard when I took a whiff. "I am soooo sorry" I said to the technician.
"For what?" she asked
"Look, even I'm offended by my BO. I can only imagine what you're thinking."
"oh I don't even notice it. You get used to it."

If she wasn't bullspitting me, than God love her, and anyone else who has to deal with patients. I'm surprised they couldn't smell me coming down the hall. What these nurses and radiologists have to put up with, it's incredible.

Tara and Timmy came to visit me again. Timmy brought me a get well card he had made himself, which of course set me off on another John Bohener tear storm. What was worse was that he was off to soccer practice after his visit, where I'd normally be helping out the coach. I was a mess. And my neighbor was trying to cheer me up by telling me how awesome my son was. I thanked him, and I also whispered. "I know he is."
            My neighbor said a decade of the rosary at 12 noon and 6 pm. I joined him for the 6 PM rosary and then I watched Mass with him. He was such a nice guy, which is why I felt kind of guilty when Karl "The Ace" Ludwig showed up and screamed "Dude! What the f-ck happened?"
            Honestly, when Karl and Ray came in, it made my day. They had me cracking up the whole time, which is exactly what I needed. It really helped pass the time. Plus I knew I had one more night in the hospital, and then I was heading home.

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Baseball Playoffs

       The Yankees season came to an end last Tuesday with a 3-0 defeat by the Houston Astros at Yankee Stadium. I realize that the Yankees officially were considered a playoff team, but I believe that a team that loses the play-in game shouldn't be considered a post season team. (And please before you start killing me on this, please understand I would feel doubly that way if the Mets were in that position.)
        That said, I think you would have to consider this season a rousing success for the Yankees. They got bigger than expected years from A-Rod and Mark Texiera, solid starting pitching from Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi and Luis Severino, and their bullpen was pretty strong as well. DiDi Gregorious stepped into an impossible circumstance (replacing the sainted Derek Jeter) and more than held his own after a rough start.
          And by not going out and spending a trillion dollars on past their prime talent, they've put themselves in a position where they have some youth on their side. The above referenced pitchers are all under 30, As is Mashahiro Tanaka. This kid they called up to replace Texiera, Greg Bird, seems like a keeper. Gregorious is 25 with a whole year under his belt as Jeter's replacement. And who knows, with CC going into rehab, a fresh start may rejuvenate his career.
          In other words, there were many steps forward for this team. Of course you have those George Steinbrenner disciples who yell "World Championship or Bust!" but that's not reality. Reality is, sometimes you need a couple of years to reload. And I think that is what we are seeing here. If I were a Yankee fan, I'd be excited.

But alas, I'm a Met fan and Friday night's game against the Dodgers was as exciting as they come. Jacob DeGrom was unbelievable; scattering 5 hits and striking out 13. He had to be that good because Dodger starter Clayton Kershaw was unconscious himself with 11 strikeouts through 5 innings. That was as great a post season pitching matchup as I have ever seen.

And then it looked like we may be going up 2-0 in the series, having bested both of their out of this world pitchers in their own ballpark, with Matt Harvey going in Game 3. Then disaster struck. First and  Third one out, a ground ball to Daniel Murphy who flips the ball to Ruben Tejada, who proceeds to get nailed by a dirty slide at the hands of Chase Utley. Tejada gets his leg broken, and to add insult to injury, the moron umpires overturn the out call! They said that Tejada never touched the base..... guess what idiots NEITHER DID UTLEY!

What is it with NY vs LA that turns the officials into WWE imposters? Two years ago, the Kings scored a goal against the Rangers whilst a Kings defenseman was atop Henrik Lunqvist's back. It boggles the mind how you can have such poor officiating in the biggest games.

As far retribution goes, I believe it is definitely in order. But I wouldn't plunk Utley, who 1) knows its coming and 2) is really just a part timer now. I would go after that ugly troll Justin Turner. That guy did squat for the Mets, then went to the Dodgers and has been killing us. They took our SS, we'll take their third baseman. That's how I would deal with it. But I wouldn't be sorry to see Utley carted off on a stretcher either.

Depending on how the playoffs shake out, I may delay in getting part three out. Thank you to all who wrote and sent your love, prayers and concern. That story has a happy ending, lets hope the playoffs have one as well.

Have a Great Week