I’m a walking pin cushion

By Joe McAdory

Published: January 28, 2009

I’ve been away for a while dealing with this heart catheterization thing. Having a wire stuck into an artery, then into my heart wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought. That’s probably because I was hospital stoned at the time.

The big deal has been the needles and bandages. I’ve been stuck so many times in the last couple of weeks I feel like a junkie. I hear the song Strawberry Fields and I think of my arm. The IV needle I had Monday morning was undoubtedly the worst needle I’ve had in my life. If they want electrolytes going through my system so bad, just give me a two-liter of Gatorade and I’ll take care of it.

And then there are the bandages. I had one for my IV for about a day, a big one where the docs sliced into my upper thigh for about a day, another one Wednesday afternoon after a nurse drew blood for a test, and then two more Band-Aids Wednesday night when I discovered open wounds near the vicinity of that upper thigh incision. It looks like a series of blisters, two of which popped and oozed all kinds of good stuff down my leg. So, I bandaged those things up.

Anyway, I don’t foresee more bandages Thursday. I’m about out of them anyway.