Jerry's Posts

12 years (and two days) and still ticking! Wow, what a year. So the basics about me. I had a bicuspid valve that got infected with strep viridans after a routine cleaning. Went septic six weeks later with endocarditis and survived. Got some serious antibiotics for a month and had my AVR replaced with a prosthetic valve on Aug 31 2010. (Lots of different opinions on what's best, for me a prosthetic valve was the right choice.) This year was an amazing year. I got married in November FINALLY. I turned 50 and as I was thinking about this post it dawned on me that I have lived a full life in that time. When I first found out I was going to need heart surgery I did all the things people in a crisis do. The main thing though was I had some deep conversations with God. No, this is not one of those posts but it's relevant. There was some time after the surgery when I got sent home with a second picc line from a staph infection and then managed to catch all sorts of other fungal and gut bugs where I felt awful. I've never admitted this but I was truly ready to throw in the towel. During one of those evening talks with the Universe I asked for 10 good years. I just needed 10 good years to make everything right and to LIVE. I was a certified workaholic. It brought me a good life but I felt in that moment I had lost out. It took some PTSD counseling to help me get past those feelings of doom. The best part was I did start to drink every ounce of life I could get and didn't look back. As I was thinking what to say this year I was scrolling along and the thought occurred that I got my 10 years and more. I thought of all the things I got to see, hear, taste, smell, touch feel and witness. It brought me to tears. Retro perspective is a funny thing. Sometimes it is a bolt of blue. I watched little kids grow into very capable adults. I travelled the world. I moved to Dallas and then last Fall into our place in Texas on a lake north of Austin and with my husband. There have been scares and trials for sure, like emergency gall bladder surgery that had to wait two days because my blood was thin. Yeah the one time I needed it to be in range and it was high. But I made it through that and it gave me a kick to be healthier. See, that's the thing about life, we never know how much we'll get. It's all part of the human condition. So this year I have a little journey planned which I'll tell you about next year. And those conversations with God? Well, I still have them. Whatever is up there pulling the strings doesn't get everything right but I have nothing to complain about. In closing, for those of you about to have surgery or just recovering my advice is in the last 12 years of posts. Let your body heal, let you fears be known. Ask questions, listen to the clinicians and take it all in. Yes there will be pain and some days will suck. But just remind yourself you are getting a chance to push the reset button. That's a gift few people truly understand. Adam, as always, thanks for getting this site up and running and keeping it running for so long. Here's to another trip around the Sun!