"Wow... it's a little crusty in here..."

These few words are not exactly what one wishes to hear laying on a hard and quite uncomfortable table in a room so cold, you can practically see one's breath.

That short statement came from the lips of Dr. Paul Daly, my cardiologist at Toronto General Hospital in the early afternoon of November 12, 2009 as he was negotiating one of the arteries leading into my heart.

I swear I could feel the 'English' he put on the catheter wires as he attempted to open this artery that was, by all accounts 99% blocked.

The procedure was a resounding success - as the image to the right will attest.  On the left side, you can see clearly to the right of a dark, shadowy 'roadway' there is nothing; this would be where the blockage of plaque occurs.  The image on the right shows that very same artery, now wide open after the painless insertion of a small, drug-eluting stent.

Amazing.  Truly.

In an earlier post I stated that I had never experienced any symptoms that would have alerted me to this condition.  There was no pain in my chest.   No shortness of breath.  Nothing.

Now, however, I feel great, energized even.

I can only surmize that my previous state of normalcy was bad -- relatively, for me.

My thanks to all medical staff at PRHC and TGH for their diligence, thoughtfulness and dedication.

Obviously, I cannot say enough about my former family doctor, Dr. Carolyn Brown... except, again, thank you!

Socialized medicine rules!