Heart Fixing

For most people sitting in a quiet room and hearing a steady ticking noise would be a worrying problem. But for the friends and family of Gary Mackie this is a normal. Twenty one year old Gary underwent valve replacement surgery last year, being half the age of the next youngest patient going through thee recovery process at the same time. The left aortic valve in Gary’s heart didn’t let the blood through, so doctor’s removed the valve and replaced it with a metal substitute, causing the constant tick everyone who knows Gary has come to know and love. To do this, doctors had to crack Gary’s ribs, break his sternum and leave him with a vast scar on his chest. 

After finding out the horrifying, devastating news of having to undergo major heart surgery, Gary put on a brave face, something not a lot of people of any age could possibly do. He held it all together to stop his family from worrying so much. “It sucked, I’m not gunna lie,” but with his family upset, it calmed down the feelings Gary was suffering. 

The recovery process was long and hard. The high dependency ward, where from the darkness the screams and crying of other patients made the experience so much worse. However, it did get better. The recovery wards kept routine, helping to build up a sense of familiarity. Gary did amazing things though. He was walking within two days, when doctors said it would take at least a week, and was home only a week after surgery, when doctors initially wanted him to stay in for three to four weeks. Not a lot of people could do that. While recovering, the process was frustrating. People kept telling him not to do things, and Gary felt a lot of his time was spend being “cooped up,” but his friends made things better, going to visit and taking him out when they could. 

The operation was the best thing to happen to Gary. During the build-up to the whole thing, Gary was thinking the worst, unable to talk about how worried he was out of fear of upsetting the people around him further, all the time the people closest to him thinking they might never see him again after the operation. But now, several months on from then, Gary “couldn’t be happier,” and feels so much better for it, he has more energy and can enjoy his life to the full, something he does a lot. And despite having to take daily medication, the doctors don’t require to see him in the foreseeable future 

The last thing Gary has to say, if your faced up the same unfortunate circumstances as him, don’t panic and talk to the people around you! Gary made it out fine, much to the relief of us all around him.