BILAL’S STORY · SCARSTORIES FOUNDER
An ordinary flutter. An unexpected diagnosis. And the slow work of finding my way home.
Robotic LIMA-to-LAD bypass · 1 August 2026
Knowledge did not remove the fear. It turned fear into a plan.
THE ORDINARY DAYS
Dated entries drawn from the original account and, from August onwards, from the daily Apple Health record kept through recovery. Weekly reflections summarize those entries.
Through Aug 7, 2026
Surgery, intensive care, the ward, then home. The documented home entries describe manageable pain, slow walking and a day of dizziness. The account does not contain a separate entry for every hospital day; this reflection keeps those gaps visible.
Aug 8–9, 2026
This partial week covers the final two days in the original account. Dizziness eased, routines became more familiar and a new concern was reported to the surgeon. Later treatment belongs in a separate update, not in these early entries.
Aug 10–16, 2026
The week the walks stopped being events and became habits. Step counts sat between one and four thousand a day, resting pulse held in the mid-sixties, and blood pressure settled around 106/72. Sleep was the honest variable — some nights barely three hours. Nothing dramatic; that was the point.
Aug 17–23, 2026
A quiet week of building. On the 21st I passed nine thousand steps for the first time since the operation — an ordinary number to anyone else, a milestone to me. Weight held near 75 kilograms and the chest soreness kept receding.
Aug 24–30, 2026
The week the plan completed itself. On the 27th I returned to the cath lab for the staged stent — one drug-eluting stent to the circumflex, through the right groin, the rest left to medication. The day itself was nearly flat, four hundred steps; the days after were careful. By the 30th I was walking again.
Aug 31 – Sep 6, 2026
Recovery from the groin access ran its seven days, uneventfully. Then the review that mattered: on the 6th I was cleared to normal activity with no restrictions. The same week carried the best lipid result I had ever seen — LDL 0.45 mmol/L, down from 6.89 in July.
Sep 7–13, 2026
Two draws, two sets of answers. Iron had repleted on the oral tablet alone — ferritin from 21.8 up to 47 — and vitamin D crossed from deficient to sufficient. The complete panel closed at LDL 0.37 and ApoB below range; the one flag left standing was my parathyroid, to be checked again.
Sep 14–20, 2026
An unremarkable week, which is what recovery is supposed to feel like. Walks of three to five thousand steps, blood pressure steady, resting pulse in the low fifties. The only shadow was administrative rather than clinical — the old insurance cover lapsed on the 19th, leaving a window to close before travel.
Sep 21–27, 2026
Three days above twelve thousand steps — fourteen thousand, then nearly fifteen. The walking that had once been prescribed now simply happened. Seven weeks after the second procedure, the recovery stopped being a project and became a life.
Sep 28 – Oct 1, 2026
The final September draw recorded the lowest LDL yet, 0.31 mmol/L, and ApoB and iron both in good order. One number moved the wrong way — HbA1c at 5.9%, back above the target — which is the next conversation with the team rather than a cause for alarm.
A personal account, reorganized from the author’s Qalb story. Family names, hospital names and removed personal details remain omitted. Peer stories do not replace care-team advice.
