A WORD OF THANKS FROM LAURIE KELLY

Never again can they say I am “ Heartless”.   I have four new artery bypasses to prove it!

As some of you now know, last November I thought I had indigestion as I walked the hills of Samford. It stayed around for about a week and I mentioned it at work. Well, the female brains in the office decided to use up their extra daily capacity of “information bits” to harass (nag) me into going to the doctor, and four bypasses later I have a reconditioned heart.

It is hard to believe that one artery was 75% blocked, one 90% and another 100% and I was walking around 4klm a day feeling fantastic. No heart attack and no muscle damaged. How lucky and blessed can I be?

It wasn’t the bungy jump I did last August as some have suggested, and to prove it, my wife Lydia, and I have just had two weeks in New Zealand sailing, walking, quad biking, luge riding and freezing amongst other things in the beautiful South Island. A great Easter break!!

I am in awe as to the skills of the medical staff at Prince Charles Hospital. They are brilliant.

Special thanks must go to our Mindworks team who stepped in to help whilst I was in hospital.

Lindel held the fort and rearranged training sessions and speakers. She was, and is, terrific.

I also appreciate the flexibility of the eleven workshop organisers with whom we had to negotiate replacement speakers for.

Special thanks should also go to Peter McMahon for the hypnotherapy sessions before, and after, the operation as well. I have no doubt it helped so much in my fast recovery.

The operation, whilst only five months ago, seems like a lifetime ago. I really learnt so much and feel blessed with all the friends I have, and the support I received. I am feeling fantastic and have enjoyed sharing some funny stories about this experience with the various groups I have worked with so far this year.

One of these stories comes from the first night at 11.30pm, when I still felt like a fraud and insisting it was only indigestion and that I shouldn’t be in hospital over night, even though I was taken from Emergency into Coronary care.

On arrival, four nurses rushed to my bedside and started putting patched wires and monitors everywhere. It was scary enough to make me feel sick.

Then a student nurse, who had very little English, started the task of reading out the questions for my information chart; questions that I had already answered three times before for other student nurses down in Emergency care. Half way through a very slow process, the conversation went something like this:

” Are you a di-a-bet-ic?”  

“No,” I answered.

 “Ohh,” she replied.

“Have you got an a-l-o-gee?”

“No.” I said.

 “Ohhh,” she replied.

“ What weight are you?“    

“85kgs.”

 “Ohhhh,” she said.

 “What height are you?”  

“5ft 6,” I said.

 “Ohhh, um, ” she said, “what is that?”

I replied, “I haven’t got a clue.”

 She looked very sad and despondent. Then I had a stroke of brilliance, which one does at 11.55pm at night on admittance to Coronary care, and reached for my wallet and found my drivers licence and said “168cm.”

“Oh,” she said with excitement  ”I have a calculator.”  

“Congratulations,” I said “that is terrific.”

I got excited for her as she rushed off to get her calculator.

I then quickly answered the rest of the questionnaire with the registered nursed who was supervising. It was now 12.10am and we were talking away and I was feeling much more comfortable when the student nurse rushed back to my bedside, and, with absolute glee in her voice and waving a calculator, exclaimed, “ You are OBESE!!!”

With that the registered nurse nearly had a heart attack herself and I felt decidedly sicker! To be told so bluntly just after midnight that I was “Obese” is not the way one would normally like to begin one’s two week stay in Hospital, but the student’s pride in working it out and the nurse’s horrified look when she announced it to me was just so funny. Needless to say, I have lost 7kgs since.

Thanks again for your support guys, I really appreciate it and am now fully back into the fun of running workshop groups again.

It is really great to love my job as much as I do and I know it is the people I meet who make it so easy.

Thanks again,

The new and improved Laurie Kelly.