Jerry's Guestbook

Congratulations Jerry on your continuing journey. You posted a great message with sound advice. Hope you and yours are staying safe from the ravages of Covid-19. Next month I'm approaching my 11th anniversary and like you, am grateful for each and every day my surgery has afforded me. Adam's site was instrumental in my giving me the information and support I needed to help me through my surgery and after-care. All the best.

Similar to Sasha below, and to you, I was diagnosed with endocarditis after dental work under the new \"no prophylactic antibiotics needed\" guidelines. I eventually had AVR on 12/12/12 and just finished a 6 week course of antibiotics this past week. The cultures from the valve during surgery were negative, so it would seem that the drugs did their thing leading up to surgery, but I am also somewhat terrified of contracting it again. I am also trying to avoid thinking the worst as soon as any kind of symptom appears. So far, things seem good, except for the effects to my colon of being on antibiotics for the past 9.5 weeks, and 20 of the past 60. I hope you are still doing well and I am looking forward to the days when I post my 6, 12 and 24 mon th anniversary posts to this journal! -Derrick H

Hey Jerry, Just wanted to say thanks in giving me hope. Looks like we share similar stories, I was diagnosed with strep endo and currently am on antibiotics via picc line. As a 33 year old, I struggled how a simple dental cleaning caused such mess. I am a candidate for AVR, but I am scared to wits about the recovery, and returning \"back to normal\". Your journal gives me hope that this is \'overcomable\', and things can go back to normal. As you mentioned, I am scared about endo coming back, and another OHS - but I guess thats all of our fears. Regardless, I wanted to say thankyou. Your journal brought many emotions out of me, but most important emotion hope. Thanks again, Sash

Jerry, So good to hear from you and hear you are doing so well. This is Mary, Danny\'s mother, he is doing very well, too. He is attending college and working out like crazy and playing hours of basket ball, of course. I understand your need to back off from your journal. I ALWAYS have to be in a very good place (feeling confident about Danny\'s recovery) before I can come on and read other\'s stories. We\'ve had a few scares (like when he had strep throat and ran a high fever) but am trying to make peace that he is a normal young man who will occasionally run fevers and be sick like normal young men. Of course, you understand that we can\'t EVER let anything just slide and assume it is a normal fever. He is doing very well and seems to be in his best physical shape ever. Of course, he is just 22 now. I\'m a grandma for the second time and they both bring me great joy. So, so good to hear from you and that you are doing so well. Take good care of yourself and enjoy life. Sincerely, Mary

No way! We have the same surgeon, how cool! Sorry, I didn\'t realize I would be showing up as anonymous. Still getting used to the site. Hopefully it\'s not like facebook, where everytime you get it figured out they change it. LOL. My name is Terri and I started a journal on here this afternoon. My website is www.terrigrimes.com and has my email info if you want to drop a line. I\'d love to hear your experiences! Dr Pollock has agreed to do a paranormal experiment with me during surgery. He is going to say a word or phrase to me while I\'m on the heart/lung machine and after they pull the vent out he\'s going to ask me what he said. I\'m hoping to be able to tell him. If anyone can it will be me. I write paranormal romance novels and also belong to a local ghost hunting team. They\'re very excited about the possible paranormal aspect of this. I\'m so glad I can be their test subject and take one for the team. Ha ha.