Like Many Patients, Jim Lehrer Is Very Thankful
You just don’t know how good you have it until life offers you a great, big piece of Humble Pie, right?
I know that’s how I felt following my double heart valve replacement. After the cardiac depression… After the pain… After the fear of needing a re-operation… I was so thankful for everyone and everything around me. My friends and family, in particular, rallied around me like guardian angels. They lifted me up with encouragement, support and lots of good love.
You should know that this feeling of “thankfulness” is common among heart valve patients. To prove it, I recently surveyed 78 patients about their feelings towards their heart valve repair or valve replacement operations. Guess what? The majority responded that heart valve surgery had a “positive impact” on their lives.
As you may have read in a prior blog, Jim Lehrer, PBS broadcaster, recently had aortic valve replacement surgery. The trusted anchor of “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” recently returned to his television.
During the closing of a recent show, Lehrer offered the audience his own, personal take on the outcome of his heart surgery.
“Before we go tonight, a few personal words, if I may. Mostly, there are just two words: Thank you. Thank you for the messages of concern and encouragement the last two months. I wanted to respond personally to each, but there were just too many, thousands of them, and still counting. I read every one of them. They mattered very much to me. There is no mystery about what happened. The aortic valve in my heart went bad and it was replaced, skillfully and perfectly. I will be easing back to work a couple or so days a week at a time, so please don’t think anything’s gone wrong again when I turn up missing. For the record, one of my doctors said a valve procedure like mine is known to make a person feel and act 10 years younger, so stay tuned.”
Well said Jim!
Keep on tickin!
Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.
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