[Leica] Angioplasties and a Friday Flower

[pklein at threshinc.com (Peter Klein)]

Howard:  Sorry you had to go through that, but most of the news is good.
The flower seems to speak of the good news. Best wishes for a full,
complication-free recovery from Katya and me.

--Peter


> Hi Luggers,
> Some of you may have noticed my radio silence over the last month or
> so but only a few safari friends know the reasons why.
> I have been learning about the miracles of modern medicine first hand.
> On November 11th I had my first angioplasty involving 7 stents in the
> two left arteries.
> Just the day before I had had a dye CT scan which showed major
> narrowing in all three arteries - despite having normal range LDL
> numbers - which I have tracked for years.
> And the first miracle was that I was able to be operated on the day
> after the scan - in fact the cardiologist wouldn't let me leave the
> hospital but checked me in right away.
> The second miracle is that the medical technology is straight out of
> Star Wars (made by Siemens Germany) allowing three dimensional imaging
> of the operating area
> through the use of contrast dye and little R2D2 xray boxes that zip
> around by remote control with a large X ray wheel swiveling overhead.
> My first angioplasty lasted 4 hours and I took in so much contrast dye
> that the last right artery was left for another time to avoid over
> loading my kidneys. The second angioplasty took place on Tuesday this
> week and it wasn't so successful.
> The cardiologists couldn't get in due to a double S bend in the artery
> near the heart so no stents were installed. That's the bad news. While
> they were in they checked the earlier stents and everything is
> settling in well. The blood flow from the left arteries is strong
> enough that capillaries are developing to feed blood to the nearly
> blocked right artery and if that trend continues the cardios say that
> open heart surgery may not be required. So that's the good news.
> So, I am back and here is a friday flower to celebrate - taken with
> the Fuji X100 in macro mode.
>
> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/HKFall2011/OrchidW.jpg.html
>  >
>
> Please look large and enjoy.
> C&C always welcome.
> Howard
>