Cabbage now, or CABG Later....

“You need a Cabbage”

-Dr. Jayme Locke, Director, Incompatible Kidney Transplant Program to me Wednesday, June 28, 2017

She wasn’t offering me surplus from her garden…. She was using a bit of humor to ease the shock of hearing that I needed a CABG, or Coronary Artery Bypass Graft, more commonly known as Open Heart Surgery.

I was stunned. Jennifer was in tears. We were dumbfounded. I had a clear stress test from 2013 and a “clear” nuclear stress test that was less than 90 days old. We had not slept in about three days, and I had not eaten anything but chicken broth and popsicles for about four days--we were not in a good place.

While still a major, major surgery, I have since come to understand that this is one of contemporary medicine’s most commonly performed surgeries, and the surgical team that is undertaking mine performs this procedure about four hundred times a year. A friend works in his office, and she has been helping me along the way, answering questions, providing counsel, and keeping me sane.

Following the transplant, things were rolling along smoothly until I had an adverse reaction to one of the more powerful anti-rejection medicines. I tried my best to inform about twelve doctors that nothing was wrong at all, and I’d like to think that a couple of them agreed with me, but they continued to order testing which ultimately discovered that I have three arteries with blockages. For two days that seemed like weeks, the doctors discussed and debated how to proceed. On one hand was a trip right back to surgery, and on the other was regular transplant protocols, home for healing, and a return at a future date. Home for healing won out, and I was really pleased.

With the rest period, I am much more prepared physically, mentally, and emotionally for what is to come next. Laying in the hospital bed, three days removed from transplant, I was NOT looking forward to going straight back to that Operating Room.

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, smoking, our Western Diet, and genetics are all contributors to Coronary Artery Disease. Since my ears have been opened over these last few weeks, I have learned about so many people that I know who have had this, and the other treatment, a vessel catheterization procedure, for blocked arteries.

I have some of the conditions above that are risk factors for this condition, my failing kidneys certainly contributed largely to the deterioration of the condition of my blocked vessels, and I certainly didn’t eat much cabbage when I was in my Twenties!

I am fortunate to have had a World Class surgical team that covered all of their bases and ran down every possibility. The timing of the discovery, while difficult at the time, could not have come on a better schedule. Their professionalism and dedication to their craft has not only restored my quality of life, they quite possibly have saved my life in the process.

My advice to anyone who will listen, particularly my friends in their forties and fifties is to develop a relationship with a cardiologist, sign up for every test that you can, and to borrow the words of genius marketing slogan, “Eat More Cabbage!”