The End is Near

The end is near.
You can tell summer's ending. The leaves are changing colour, some trees starting to shed even. The days are still warm, but the nights now have a chill. And the sun's setting earlier. It's still dark when I get up at 6.
Not that I have anything against the changing of the season. I do love the snow. And I think a white Christmas is one of the most magical events of the year.

The few things I had wanted to do before the season ends, but haven't yet:

Learn to fly a glider

Make a trip to the North Shore

Tattoo my right arm

Paint my study and bedroom

Bike 500 kms before winter (have done 270 so far, in the last 4 weeks)

Then again. Doubt I'd really do all of them.

That aside. Back on the inpatient service now. Which explains why I had to get up at 6 am on Saturday and Sunday (don't get a day off this week). Ran into one of my old patients, Mr. G, who was here at about the same time as the 3 stooges. This guy got his new heart a few days ago. We recognized each other when I went into his room for a consult, and traded stories from the last few months. He's still in touch with his old cardiomyopathy buddies, and tells me that their original group had 6 people on the cardiac transplant list. All waiting for hearts. Most with automated implanted defibrillators. Of the 6, the 3 stooges all received their hearts months ago. Another's still waiting, while another had died months ago. His heart just couldn't wait I guess.

Having said that, I'm still awed by how things move here. They do heart-lung transplants by the hundreds every year. Bless those people who pledged their organs. The one thing I find especially cute (cute... hmm... can a Guy use that word? Or is this making me look soft?) is how they give all cardiac surgery patients a special heart-shaped red pillow with a picture of the heart and coronary arteries on it. Patients who get bypass grafts have the coronary arteries on the pillows altered according to where the grafts went. And invariably, all of them get their family, doctors and nurses to autograph their pillows.

I signed Mr. G's pillow yesterday. That made my day, really. I'm glad he's doing so well.