So I had surgery 9 hours ago. The operation was a pericardial window. It’s a surgery that’s meant to prevent fluid buildup in my pericardium. The pericardium is a protective layer which is around your heart, it's sort of like a little balloon. I was experiencing pericardial effusion which means the “balloon” filled with some fluid that was putting pressure on my heart. This is caused by pericarditis, which means inflammation of the pericardium. This is primarily caused by an infection, which so far seems to be coming from my inflamed appendix.
Anyway, enough of the biology lesson, onto the surgery. It basically involved making an incision of a few inches on my lower chest, then going inside and cutting a little hole at the bottom of my pericardium. This hole (or “window" as they call it) will drain any fluid into my chest cavity. From there, the fluid will apparently be absorbed by my body and I’ll just pee it out.
The surgery went well, I just gotta recover from this big cut on my chest now. Next, the doctors want to remove my appendix in a few days. The appendix doesn’t really do anything, so I’m not losing much. I’ll update you guys when that happens.
And I really really really appreciate the kind messages and new patrons coming in, despite me not being able to work right now. It means a lot