As i lay joking

...My slurring told the tals, and who therefore suffer avoidable there must have been a couple of needle surgeon there wasn t time to keep leaning but debilitating or fatal strokes or other jabs that benumbed parts of me and put it out, so he created a bypass to channel grave ills, even though most are a lot me into some kind of trance...

...blockage was even worse than the pre-op if any choice among surgeons and hospiThough they didn't register at the time, testing had revealed...

...If ly trained people worked together to save cent blockage presents a tolerable risk, but this persisted I would soon lose not only my language and/or life...

...up surgeons and the anesthe- out there who have no health tist, all friendly and capable of insurance, or lousy insurance, chuckles...

...Gently...

...tinely visit their doctors because they wheeled into the O.R...

...were focusing on me or on their luncheon he finished the job and sewed me up...

...My six-and-a-half-year- will be forever Gore-Tex...

...A happy on the two sides of my neck the anesthetist say something to the sur- ending, or nonending...

...Put it all togeons and chose one, in large part for his old daughter Sarah would not wish to gether and it would probably cover the deskside manner: he chuckled down payment on a Mercedes...

...I had plan- more blood upward and save my French younger than I and are much more needned to check whether the faces above me accent, and quite possibly my life...

...To test geon...

...But response...

...At the ordinarily, if sometimes slowappointed hour (7:45 A.M...

...I was told that a 70 per- blood was getting through to my brain...

...Met the doctor's staff: coverage from an insurer that all friendly and efficient...

...and drew a tentative conclusion...

...At his behest I took I don't have to worry about it...

...story is worth telling not only because I MRA...

...Then ed by their families...

...I ly, pays all or most of what went breakfastless to the hospi- providers bill it for...

...ever, I was able to count from 1 to 10, then spent an extra night in the hospital, for a backward from 10 to 1. Then again...

...when my bearing asked for that All right, pay for a Honda...

...It got boring (or I wanted to be cute after going home, the stitches are out, writer...

...Met the two back- W at least in passing on all those "Arc you sure you had a gall bladder when you came in...

...Heard time, and my voice is gravelly...

...Both suggested that I had a 70 per- It seems that I was not only slurring my have a (mostly passive) role in it, but becent blockage in my right carotid artery, 90 words, in all languages, but slowing cause it has a moral, having to do with percent in the left...

...On the anesthetist's request, how- transfusion, having lost a lot of blood, I Congress...

...more tests: an EKG, "blood Through a family connection work," another sonogram, a I have comprehensive medical stress test...

...As I write, ten days or so Robert G. Hoyt is Commonweal's senior again...

...By 10 o'clock I was being would give me a light...

...healing, I get a shot of pain from time to D of educated, sensitive fingers Tried again: "Eros, zwei, drei, vier...

...And that, I learned later, is when an Let us now shift gears...

...AS I LAY JOKING Robert G. Hoyt uring a recent routine visit, to the last), so I switched tongues: "Un, my neck is still sore, the wounds are my doctor placed two pairs deux, trois, quatre, cinq...

...No chuckles...

...Commonweal 3 1 July 14, 2000...

...Ergo: our health-care system is plans, but it's hard to do so with your eyes Outcomes: Because I had to have a wonderful...

...And total of two...

...By my count at least fifteen highblood to the brain...

...tal's ambulatory surgery unit, It strikes me that anyone in got a room, donned the appro- this enviable fix has to reflect priate garb...

...Tell it to dosed...

...He has interesting scars...

...For me, this it he sent me to get a sonogram, then an element of suspense entered the story...

...The carotids channel down, and this meant that not enough money...

...After sixty-five years of nicotiniza- other conditions that can't be cured by the side of the neck, it's the jugular that's in tion I'd have to quit smoking: Nobody yoga or an apple a day, who don't routhe middle...

...I tested by asking one of them to tempt me again into a game of Tickle Tor- who may have well-clogged arteries or remind their boss that the carotids are on ture...

...Mama" and "Dada," plus maybe how the new tubing in my neck (a part of me Duly warned, I checked out two sur- to blow my nose...

...and rolled onto the The problem rose because the arterial don't have doctors, who don't have much table...

...Add the rent 90 percent means you're a lot more likely my patches of French and German, but for my room and the O.R., a unit of than the next person to have a stroke and also my command of English, down to blood, the use of high-tech equipment, die, or, worse, become a vegetable...

...But it isn't fair...