Six years ago on this date, I had my heart valve replacement. I have written a post each year on the anniversary of the event, which I’m sure is repetitive and not that interesting any more to my few readers.
The bottom line is that everything still keeps working okay, at least from the information I get from my cardiologist who I only see a couple of times a year. I was born with a heart murmur that never seemed to slow me down until about seven years ago. Thankfully, doctors who did the procedure to replace the defective valve found nothing else wrong with my heart or nearby plumbing (no stints or other replacement equipment were necessary). I do seem to take a few more naps these days — which I feel guilty about — but I guess it’s not that unusual, given my tenure on the planet.
I learned last year from my cardiologist that my replacement valve came not from a pig — as I had long been led to believe — but from a cow. I’m not sure how I feel about that, one way or the other. Pigs are supposedly smarter, but I guess that coming from a much larger animal, a cow valve might be stronger.
I looked up “pigs vs. cows” and found that cows seem to be a bit more sociable with larger groups (think herds) and gentle natured in their behavior. On the other hand, pigs prefer smaller groups and are also known for their curiosity and playfulness. However, having an organ from either one of these animals certainly does not imply that I got any of those characteristics from the procedure.
And as far as cows, I found this old Gary Larsen cartoon suggesting that cows indeed may have a bit of playfulness.
Otherwise, my health has been good since the heart procedure. My only hiccup was an unfortunate fall while fishing in the Gila Wilderness a couple of years ago which resulted in seven or eight broken ribs. But it turned out to be fortunate because an X-ray of my broken ribs also revealed the presence a previously unknown large kidney stone which required two surgeries to remove. I was glad to have it extricated from my body, although it was a painful process and an annoying recovery.
Going back to my search about pigs vs. cows, I stumbled across this interesting article by author Jennifer Shindman in a publication by the Albert Ellis Institute of Rational Emotive Behavior.
Shindman writes about an incident in which a man was driving his car on a winding country road and meets another car driven by a woman.
“It was a warm summer day and the motorists had their windows open. He started around the bend and another car came from the opposite direction. A woman leaned out of the window of her car and shouted, “Pig!” In a fleeting second he felt angry that he was unjustly accused of being a chauvinist. He wasn’t even “hogging” the road, and so felt this accusation was unwarranted. Being angry at this name calling, he returned the perceived insult by shouting “Cow!” Then, as he came around his part of the bend, he ran over a pig in the middle of the road. How easy it is to misinterpret others’ behavior and give it a meaning they did not intend.“
Shindman concludes:
“The lesson of the day: SLOW DOWN! Pay attention to your thoughts and notice when you are coloring a situation by evaluating it. Instead, try just describing the events as they happened. This way, you will avoid feeling unhealthy negative emotions…. And killing innocent pigs.”
As you can tell, I’ve gone completely off the rails from my original subject, my heart valve replacement. But it proves what I’ve learned about writing this blog — you might never know what interesting thing you might find if you just keep looking around. Or you might save a pig.
aero-cordero.com 