A bypass in life III – the postponment

Over the past month in the leadup to my bypass operation, I had been very careful about not falling sick or contracting any infection.

But as luck would have it, I ran a fever yesterday, the eve of the operation. The surgeon, on discovering my fever, said he could not operate as it would be an unnecessary risk for such a major operation.

I was lucky though in that another patient who was scheduled for a bypass Thursday could not go through with it until he had his kidney stones cleared.

So now Thursday is the day.

We still have a problem though: getting enough blood donors.

My surgeon is very insistent that we should have only fresh blood and blood of the same blood group. This creates difficulties, especially when you blood group type is AB+ which is relatively rare. The fact that the hospital requires donors to be screened prior to donation also adds to the difficulties as they would have to make two trips during office hours – once for the screening and one more time for the actual donation on the morning of the bypass itself.

The fact that I have not been living in KL for the past two decades also doesn’t help as I know much fewer people than in Jakarta.

Nevertheless, my sister has been doing a super job harnessing her network of friends and Facebook contacts to get us some sponsors. I am humbled by the kindness and generosity of the donors wo don’t know me from Adam yet have taken the trouble to give their blood. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

We are still a few donors short though so if any of you know anyone with AB+ blood living in KL or near Subang Jaya who’s willing to donate on Thursday morning please let me know.

In the meantime, with my fever abated I feel fine and look forward to the bypass.