My sister's heart

At approximately 8:30 central time on Tuesday morning, May 11th my lovely sister T. Marie will undergo open heart surgery. It is estimated to last 3 hours. There is a 95 per cent chance they will be able to repair her prolapsed valve. She is in terrific health otherwise and the prognosis is really good.


I have heard about several open heart surgeries on friends parents or grandparents. All seemed to have good outcomes. Most of them were double or triple or quadruple bypasses. Comments were made.


It is so routine these days.


Happens all of the time.


They've really gotten it down to a science. (?)


It surely seems different when it is my younger sister. It is hard to imagine them cutting her sternum and spreading her chest although I have seen it all on television. They will ventilate her and put her on a bypass machine so that they can stop her heart to work on the valve. There will be a team working, doctors barking orders, anesthesiologists reciting stats, just like on TV.


But it will be my sister under that sheet and mask. My sister who I shared a bed with for years. My sister who I love. 


There is no reason to think anything will go wrong.


And yet...


Please hold my sister in the light.