As you know, my life has been like a fairy tale recently. I could write a book. Maybe a movie.
The whole dream begain with a visit to my doctor. He said that there was something wrong with my heart. I told him he was crazy. Everybody knows I don’t have a heart. How do I find out the truth? My doctor said he was going to send me to colleagues of OZ (Dr. Oz). They could certainly tell me whether I had a heart and if I did, what was wrong. How do I find these colleagues of OZ? Just follow the yellow brick road! Really? Actually it was city streets to the local hospital. The land of OZ is mystical. All the inhabitants have need for intensive care. The food is lousy and they draw so much blood you’d think you were surrounded by vampires.
The colleagues of OZ confirmed that I”ve had a heart all the time and that down deep I was a really caring person. For some reason my heart had developed a cold and needed to be fixed.
So the good news just kept coming. I had found the land of OZ. I had a real heart. They could fix the heart. I had hopes of going back to Kansas (Appleton).
The colleagues sawed open my chest, took my heart in their hands, grafted a few veins to improve blood flow and then stuck the whole assembly back in my chest. Not only can the doctors verify that they’ve listened to my heart beat but they actually held it in their hands. Visual proof I have a heart.
Then came the hard part. My heart was back in my chest and beating. I don’t know how, but a semi-truck crashed through my recovery bedroom at the hospital. At least that is what it felt like. People were helping me out of bed to walk. I didn’t feel like walking. People wanted me to breath air into a tube to expand my lungs. I didn’t want to blow air. People wanted me to eat but they failed to look at the hospital menu (it was so healthy it could make you sick).
The one “smile” while I was in the land of OZ was your Mom. The “smile” was the one constant. Everyday. I pleaded with your Mom to take me back to Kansas (home) but she was smart enough to know I wasn’t ready.
I was finally given a certificate saying I was an exceptional heart patient and I could be proud that the first day after the operation I had actually walked 565 steps from ICU to my hospital room pushing a wheel chair. The wheel chair is so that if you die, they don’t have to carry you.
So I am back in Kansas. I really never left. I had a heart all the time. I had just experienced a vivid dream. I’m told my life will return to normal. Seems to me there is a Hollywood story in there someplace.
Thank you to all the fantasy actors (including the medical personnel who were really, really nice). It was all in technicolor.
Love,
Dad