Ray on road back from heart surgery
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No comments [ Add Comment ]By Loretta Park
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
E
OGDEN -- The hardest moment for Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clinton, was when he had to tell his four children he needed surgery and there was a likelihood he could die.
"I could handle someone telling me," Ray said, gulping back tears. "But when I looked in my kids' eyes, that's when it hit home."
Ray, 40, did not want his children, ages 4 to 14, to hear from someone else there was a slight chance the fourth surgery on his heart may be fatal.
He talked about the trials of the past week as he sat in a chair in his room at McKay-Dee Hospital. He underwent emergency open-heart surgery Thursday for a replacement of his ascending aorta and aortic valve. A tear in his carotid artery was also repaired.
Dressed in a blue hospital gown with blue cotton hospital pants, Ray showed the incision, which ran down the middle of his chest from his throat to his belly button.
Ray's hospital saga began earlier this month when he visited his cardiologist, Dr. Grant Holland. Normally, Ray sees Holland in October before the Legislature gets underway. This year, Ray decided to postpone the appointment until March because he was busy working on several bills for the session.
Following that visit, Ray learned his heart needed some attention.
When asked if the doctors would have seen the aneurysm on his aorta if he had gone in October, Ray said he believes they may not have.
The banker and legislator has not lost his sense of humor. He's hoping he will be sitting in his own chair today, helping his children with their homework and teasing his wife. By next Monday, Ray said he hopes to be in his office at Sterling Savings Bank in Murray, conducting business as usual.
As for other activities he enjoys, such as playing basketball or lifting weights, "We're still negotiating," Ray said. "It's somewhere between all or nothing."
He's not only negotiating with the doctors, but with his wife, Julie.
When it comes to slowing him down, "Oh man," Julie Ray said. "I just have to trust him that he knows his body."
Paul Ray said he has been told he will not participate in the annual basketball game on April 18 between legislators and staff from the governor's office.
He plans to go anyway, but only to cheer.
"If I can't beat (Attorney General Mark) Shurtleff with half a heart and not be able to run down the court, then I need to quit basketball," Ray said.
He said this time recuperating will be easier than last time he had surgery when he was 16 years old. Then he couldn't wait to get out of the hospital where he had been for 45 days, including one week in the intensive care unit. This stay has only been a week, with one day in the intensive care unit.
The long recovery on the previous surgery still didn't slow him down. Four months after receiving an artificial aortic valve in 1983, Ray was swinging from a trapeze as he performed in the Peru Amateur Circus in Indiana.
Now he just wants to get strong enough to play with his children and continue his work with the Legislature.
Ray said he learned several things from this experience, which he plans to champion so that, he hopes, others won't have to go through what he did.
He learned hospitals are not required to keep medical records for any length of time. His doctors did not have access to his medical records in Indiana because they had been destroyed.
The legislator plans to work on bills that will require medical institutions to keep medical records. Ray said he has learned IHC is a model in preserving records through digital files.
He also plans to lobby for those who use Medicare and Medicaid.
"What is considered optional treatment?" asked Ray, who has insurance coverage.
He said he doesn't think having a respiratory therapist come into his room should be considered optional. Under some Medicaid plans, it is classified as such.
"I consider breathing a necessary evil," Ray said.
He also learned that two pills may look alike, but they may have different chemical components.
"I'm 100 percent against preferred drug lists," he said.
