Thank You God, Mary, Bernadette, Jacinta, And Others For The Past 50 Years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                           I might not have had them, had this operation not been available at the time. As my mother always said, my body would have given out around age 14.  I would have missed it all!!!!!!!!!!

                            Anyway, half a century ago today, I was 11 years old, in the fifth grade, and stretched out on a gurney at New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center, knocked out with gas--not pleasant--and hauled into the operating room for open heart surgery.  I had been born premature, hadd a hole in the lower left ventricle, and this had to be corrected before puberty--which I did not even know about, then!

                              I did know, then, that "MAME" was getting set to open on Broadway, and I would much rather have been Frankie Michaels, then.  Except, here I am, and Frankie, poor thing, is gone.

                                What was the worst thing about the experience  For several days--maybe a week--around the clock, I had to have antibiotic injections.  Now, like most kids, I hated needles; I would react much differently, now.  But these injections would be into my legs, and the needle did not hurt, but when the medicine went into the bloodstream, the pain, for me, then, was almost unbearable.  But, then I was only 11.

                                       I remember my pediatric cardiologist was Dr. Mary Ellen Engel, who died years ago, at the age of 86.  And the surgeon was a short guy named Frank Rado.  Dr. Engel, was a pioneer in a little known field, and at a time when women were not accepted in medicine. She must have had a tough road to travel.

                                    I missed 34 days of school because of this; it is a wonder I was promoted.  And once I got home, classmates came to visit and brought gifts.  Which I highly appreciated, and recall to this day.

                                      To think that half a century has passed.  I am now 61, and while there were some rough patches, it has been worth it.  Today, I am sure kids facing the procedure I did had an easier time of it than I did, back then.

                                       At least, that is my hope for them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      That, and many years ahead for my beloved and myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!