The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine

The Trip of His Life and Death
If You Have an Operation ... It's the One to Get

[Editor's Note: Over the last several weeks, YJHM has presented a series of poems about this patient's experience undergoing heart surgery. This is the final installment.]

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The Trip of His Life and Death

Bob’s heart bypass surgery
had given him
a second chance
at life.
He rode his bicycle
for almost 20 years
of good health.
After his surgery,
he learned
to eat right
and take care
of himself.
Bob, however, died
of a heart attack
after he finished
a cross-country trip
on his bike.
The cross-country ride
served as a testament
to his commitment
to exercise.
It was a trip of a lifetime.

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If You Have an Operation ... It's the One to Get

I smoked cigars.
I ate red meat.
I drank lots of beer.
I was elgible.
Coronary bypass
shouldn’t be seen
as anything other
than major surgery.
My arteries were clogged
with yellow fat.
I faced
the operation
with fear.
I wasn’t looking forward
to the day
when the surgeons
ripped into my breastbone
with power tools.
They sliced into my leg
and remove a vein
and stitched onto my heart
to reroute blood around
my gunked-up
arteries.
It mended the heart but
offered the soul
a chance
to come
close to death
and walk away.
In a short time,
I felt fine.
Free of pain
and proud of myself.
Now
a period of introspection
bordering on depression.

My heart
was open to view.
Some one else touched it.
In those moments
there was no great difference
between life and death.
Now and then
my mind wanders
to a deeper edge.
I’m like a soldier,
who has returned from
a war,
unsure of what I have
experienced
and how it fits into
my life.

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Published: March 11, 2007