James's Posts

Surgery was just a bit more than a year ago. I've been back to work full time for about eight months, and I've been very busy at work, spending way too much time in and out of airports and on the computer before sun up. A year ago, more than a few nurses told me that full recovery might take a year, and they've been right so far. The truth is that the long hours affect me more, though that seems to be improving with time. So, to be very clear: I consider myself recovered. In the past few months, since I started to get busy at work a few months ago, I've pulled back from swimming; now I'm getting started once again. I've decided to extend my break a bit, and spend the next few months in the gym — and not in the pool. I'm going aerobic stuff but, also, I now am allowed to lift weights — something doctors had discouraged for the past 15 years — and I'm going back to a weight regime that my college team used to do at the start of the seasons. In any case, earlier this week I hosted some of the people who were with me a year ago: Lynne and two sisters, Katy and Margy, and my two boys. Thanks, everyone else also, for your help and support …

I wouldn't go so far as to say things have returned to normal in the seven months since I picked up my new ascending aorta and mechanical valve. But things aren't so bad. Work goes on. There was a moment when I wondered if I would be able to work again —or, at the very least, to work hard. Now, the issue isn't whether I'll be physically able to continue, but just the normal worry that all people over 60 ought to have: how stay in the game long enough to retire on my own terms. Swimming goes on, also. I'm back in the water with my master's swimming team. The guys in the fast lane always were out of my reach, and I'm not able to keep up with the people with whom I used to swim in the medium-fast lane. But I'm swimming fast enough, and slowly gathering strength with interval workouts of about 2,500 yards in a bit less than an hour. My cardiologist is in agreement: things look OK indeed. I unsuccessfully pitched the end of beta blockers — but he agreed: cut the dose in half yet again. I'll see him again just before the anniversary of my surgery — no need for the more frequent check-ins, he agreed. So: thanks, everyone, for the support and the help during these months …

Five months after surgery, I'm back to work: though I'm full time, I'm not full strength. I'm also back in the pool, and have even dipped my toe in the competitive pool again, though it would be generous to say I am merely "slow." My great hope is to gather strength so that I can return to the old "normal." I have long suggested that, before the surgery, I was asymptomatic. In fact, as I reflect on how I'm feeling today — and how I used to feel — I understand now that this may not be true. What I most notice is that my energy levels have changed when compared with the months and years before my surgery. Put differently, with the benefit of hindsight, I can track my decline during the many months before surgery. The easiest way to quantify this is to look at my swimming: my times steadily slowed since 2009 (my long-course backstroke times in 2009 were 1:14.0 for 100 meters and 2:45 for 200 meters; by 2012 my best times were 1:17 and 2:52); in addition, during those years, I steadily reduced the number of events that I was swimming: I swam six events in the summer championship meet in 2009, whereas in the championship meet in December 2012 I only got in the water for two races and one relay. At work, too, my energy and initiative and focus steadily diminished in the months leading up to my surgery. Today, though I am nowhere near full strength, I am enjoying moments of mental focus that have not been "normal" since before 2010. I am, however, now standing on a plateau in my recovery process. That is, I no longer am seeing the rapid improvements that I enjoyed in the third month after surgery. More than a month ago I "graduated" from cardiac rehab: it gave me the confidence that I could exercise safely - but in the past month I have not increased the quality or quantity of my swimming workouts, and have seen little improvement in my energy at work. As I was reminded last weekend, I am a long way from being recovered. I competed in US Masters Swimming's long-course summer national championship meet. It was in Mission Viejo, an hour's drive to the south, so I wasn't about to miss it, even though I clearly was not going to be competitive. I swam times that were just awful by my old standards (I swam the 50-meter backstroke in a time that was roughly in the range of my first 50-meter leg of my old 200-meter backstroke pacing). I am reluctant to press hard in workouts, at least not yet. So, instead, I'm going to take a few weeks out of the pool, trying to build endurance and strength by running. I'll get back in the water around the first of September. Meanwhile, I'm off tomorrow morning for a business trip to San Jose, putting to a test my endurance at work …