Illustrative Image: Heart (Image: Istock) | String (Image: Istock) | (By Daniella Lee Ming Yesca) /file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/label-Op-Ed.jpg)
Just when I thought it was safe to wade back into the waters of my life, after an episode in Johannesburg that I told you about only a week ago, life has thrown me a much bigger curveball.
This means I have to beg your indulgence for some weeks while, first, I wait for a medical procedure to be done and, thereafter, recover from it.
Daily Maverick, I must tell you, is not only brilliant at exposing corruption, helping to dismantle State Capture, and the many investigative exposés that have had our nation agog for many years now.
This newspaper is also wonderful to work for, supremely kind to its staff, and has now told me not to do any work until all this is over and I have recovered.
All this? Last Sunday, settling down for a nap — I have been getting very tired daily for a long time now, and naps have long been a normal part of my days — I rolled over and was suddenly in pain all down the left side of my torso, and across the chest, as well as all the way across my lower back and even in the left side of my neck.
My family took me to the emergency room, where blood tests and X-rays were done, and the upshot was that I have a critical heart issue that needs urgent attention. And within all of this, many things became clear — not least my frequent tiredness and need to nap, and my breathlessness and tight chest during my morning walks.
My cardiologist, whom obviously I cannot name, would prefer me to have a Tavi procedure (transcatheter aortic valve implantation) rather than much more invasive open-heart surgery.
Medical aids, however, have a say in what gets done, which frankly offends me, but I am trying not to think about that too much as I don’t want what’s left of my aortic valve (which has narrowed greatly over what my doctor says is a number of years and is now so slim that its effectiveness is slight) to cause me more immediate and everlasting damage.
So, it’s to the bed for me, and the armchair, and sunny spots in dappled sunlight. It’s away from the stove for me, and into supermarkets to buy ready-made meals. And it’s to the books for me — to my beloved John Steinbeck and Dylan Thomas and, finally, Paulo Coelho — and to the movies on TV, while I await whichever procedure it turns out to be.
I have huge confidence in my cardiologist. I believe she can pull it off, and that open-heart surgery will be avoided, and I will have personal experience of what a Tavi is, and what it feels like to have one, come out the other side, recover, and get back to delivering daily recipes and weekly columns to you all once again. See you soon. DM