(Dear readers: Ten years ago this week I had a massive heart attack and emergency triple bypass surgery. Not my idea of fun, and I even missed a deadline for that week’s Top 10 List. The editor sent me flowers and docked me a week’s pay.)
By Torry Stiles
10. The makers of the fine pain medicine available today – especially the good stuff that had me dreaming about monkeys stealing my pants.
9. My friends who were there for my wife and kids with meals, transportation, companionship and stories about their operations that were so much worse.
8. The inventor of those bendy straws. Brilliant. Society as we know it would collapse without them.
7. The folks at St. Francis who put up with me and were always there with a soft touch, cool cloth and the finest gourmet ice chips.
6. My daughter, Vanessa, who got to be my doctor before she graduated nursing school.
5. Doctor “Buzz” Hickman who realized I couldn’t be THAT good of an actor and had me shipped to the Emergency Room without even a stop at Long’s Donuts.
4. The person who discovered nitroglycerin can blow up stuff AND stop a heart attack.
3. An unidentified respiratory therapist named Jared who put up with me being a difficult patient and refrained from standing on my oxygen hose.
2. My son, daughter and son-in-law who were always there to remind me not to do the stupid stuff that almost killed me the last time.
1.My wife who still falls for that old bit where I clutch at my chest every time the grass needs cut, or the garbage taken out.
