Mark's Journal

Well, I cruised through 6 months and hit 7 months today. Over 700 miles on a dirtbike this summer and completed the Manitou Incline last Saturday (first time this year). So, feeling pretty darn good overall. Just very slight left side discomfort that I'm beginning to wonder if it's more related to nerves in or around my ribs, but it's definitely not blood flow related and other additional chest pain subsided when I kicked the beta blockers. Heart's ticking along like I'm 20 again.

Today marks the 13th anniversary of my first open heart surgery.  I am also getting my post-op echo today to validate and baseline my new valve.  I should get the ‘go away and see me next year’ from my cardiologist tomorrow.   

As far as rehab goes due to how busy the rehab options were in Denver I’ve opted to again do my own rehab rather than just spend pointless hours traveling and missing work.  So far I’m pretty happy with the results.  I’m at ~60% of my normal upper body workout weights.  The benching weight is the most behind but that arguably puts the most strain on my chest so taking it slowly,  my other rehab includes camping and now dirt-bike excursions, including some crashes.  So far I think this is an even better rehab plan than 13 years ago.  Way more fun anyways.  

My only struggles are needing more sleep and some fluttering of my heart that I think are induced by some of the heart meds.  I’ll discuss that with my cardiologist tomorrow.  Getting more sleep is a tough one for me.  I’ve never been good at going to bed ‘early’ and so falling asleep before 10 or 11 is really tough but I get up for work at 5:40.  So only getting 6 hours of sleep pretty regularly.  I’m finding that now that I’m getting older I really could use 7-8 hours.

Well, just at the precipice of 9 weeks and I must just be the luckiest person cause I got Covid, again. Otherwise I'm doing great. I packed up the RV and am living this out in seclusion.

I’ve had quite a few questions about what the differences were between 2012 and 2025 for open heart surgery, so here goes:
- I remember a lot more. Right up to the moment I went to sleep on the operating room table and right from the moment I woke up first in the ICU. I’m pretty sure the anesthesia was more ‘spot on’ this time. I’m actually glad I remembered more.
- The bio-prosthetic valve was failing more quickly than the original bi-cuspid aortic valve. I had to be more firm about the treatment and timing, and it turned out good that I was.
- The surgery was 6 hours vs the original 3 hour replacement in 2012. Made more complicated by scar tissue, my pericardium and I’m sure other things.
- I actually got to talk to the surgeon, many times and the surgeon’s office has been much more engaged and seems to care a lot more.
- I remember being intubated and having it taken out. That was an experience. Not a bad one, too, which I was concerned about.
- Mountain views vs just city views (well, nothing to do with the surgery, but it helps)
- My pain management was more my responsibility this time.
- The recliner I used the first time was more comfortable. Or I’m just older and, well, just less comfortable.
- While I spent one more day in the hospital this time, mainly due to risk management since it was my second valve replacement, I feel like I’ve recovered a little faster so far - or I am at least feeling better, sooner.
- I got the option to walk out of the hospital, which I happily took. The first time they insisted on wheeling me out.
- I don’t remember being as bloated the first time. I lost it all before I left the hospital . . .
- New type of sternum Vacuum-Assisted Closure (VAC) this time. The first time it was stapled and then just bandaged.
 - One of my chest tubes was in a least a day longer.
- Most other aspects were about the same.

Surgery Day +2:

Still didn’t sleep all that well and not terribly hungry so I had most of my breakfast, but just nibbled on lunch and as I remember nibbled on dinner as well. It’s CO, so of course it’s going to snow in the middle of April, which brings a quiet evening. I get to go on a field trip to the x-ray machine, where yesterday they brought it to me. Things look good. I was asked to do 3 laps, so I did 4. Still having to stop to catch my breath and moving really slow, but at least moving. At this point being in bed gets uncomfortable, sitting in a chair gets uncomfortable (and cold) and walking gets exhausting. I’m generally cold unless I’m covered up. I need a nurse each time I need to get up, but by evening I’m freed to get up without calling a nurse. This honestly makes it much easier to go to the restroom, move around or just stand. I like to stand a lot normally so this is welcomed freedom.

Surgery Day +3

I was supposed to do 4-5 laps, so I did 6, mostly on my own. My appetite is finally returning so I’m finally hungry to eat all my meals. Another trip for a chest x-ray. Things look great! Somewhere in the afternoon I get the final chest tube removed and that brings breathing much closer to normal. The little string stitch hurt more when they were tightening it up than removing the chest tube, which was one second and just a slightly awkward feeling. At least I can catch my breath finally. My red blood cell count and platelets are low and had been dropping. They finally are flattening out and given it’s my second valve replacement via open heart surgery they want to make sure I’m very stable so while I might have been just find going home after 3 days, I’ll stay one more night.

Surgery Day +4

I finally get 2-3 hours of continuous sleep a couple of times, but I’m feeling it on my back and butt so lots of little shifting to get comfortable for a little while. A final set of bloodwork is drawn and a final trip to get a chest x-ray, which looks great! I start on the path to be discharged which will go on all morning and until early afternoon. The line in my neck is removed. Out comes an 8” or so it seemed tube that’s a good 1/4” in diameter. I’ve done a few laps already and the nurse asks me if I want to be wheeled to the front door or walk. I’m more than happy to walk and it’s not more than 100’ from the elevators to the front door. I’m more cold than anything.

Surgery Day +1:

Somewhere ~4 AM the nurse asked if I wanted to get up first (5 AM) or second after another patient. I opted for the first slot since things were not all that exciting just being in the bed. Now, here’s where you realize what all is attached to you. Let’s see here, 3 IVs - 2 in the left arm and one in the neck, 5 or 7-wire EKG leads, 2 chest tubes, 1 vacuum tube attached to a vacuum device for sternum dressing, 1 blood pressure cuff, 1 O2 line, 1 O2 sensor, 1 catheter, a 2 leg massagers. A few of these were disconnected, but the nurse had to wrangle most of them so I could move the 2 feet to the chair. By my count that’s 19 discreet wires, tubes, etc. Now, this will be the first time I have to move beyond some strategic side to side movement they help you with overnight. The process, very generally, is that hold the pillow they give you to your chest to not only help protect it but also to keep your arms distracted so you don’t try to use them which might apply the wrong kind of pressure on your sternum. Keeping in mind that your sternum was just sawed in half and then wired or somehow secured back in place less than 24 hours ago. So, I sit up, thankfully easy since I’m already propped up by the bed and then scoot my butt a few more inches for legs to dangle a bit. Only a few inches to the floor now, but I stop here to let the nurse check more things to assure I won’t be pulling any lines. After another minute, I stand up and just stand there to stabilized, probably no different than many of you with valve issues have to do when standing up from sitting or lying down. While my new valve is doing just fine, I haven’t stood up in nearly 24 hours and my body has been through the wringer, so it needs a little time to adjust. There are at least 2 others standing there to steady me, but thankfully I was just fine. I took a few steps over to the chair and paused again so the nurse can further make adjustments to all the wires and tubes before I sit down. Then I sit, while still holding the pillow and not using my arms. All in all they were impressed I was so steady, but I wasn’t too surprised. It went about this well in 2012 as well.

After getting settled and everyone leaving I check out my arms. Oh my, I am quite bloated. Arms, fingers, legs, etc.  Later when I get weighed I've gained 10 lbs in 24 hours, but I'll lose most of it again before I go home.  The rest of my ICU stay involved about 3 hours in the chair and then back to the bed. A lot more folks circulating through, including someone from the surgeon. I get the first rendition of the surgery, basically 2 leafs weren’t working and the 3rd had a hole in it so there was regurgitation as well as stenosis that was more significant than previous tests had shown. I did also order some breakfast, which took some time to arrive and finally got some food in me by ~10 AM. Now, I’m pretty good at eating, but the next few days eating much will prove challenging. I don’t know exactly what it was, but after a half a dozen bites I felt a bit nauseous, but I was downing lots of water just fine. Once I’m done with breakfast and back in bed it’s time to get outa the ICU and on to a regular room. I’m doing just fine.

I get prepped and moved to another bed and off I go to the cardiac unit. Once I’m settled into a room in the cardiac unit the nurse goes over the plan. Catheter comes out ASAP and they get me switched fully onto their monitoring equipment. Also, the nurses will slowly stop asking you about pain, so definitely speak up on what you need. They want you to be pain free as much as possible but don’t want to be ‘pushing’ pain meds on you either. This was a difference from 2012, where they pushed pain meds to keep me comfortable until I left the hospital.
If you’ve never had a catheter, having it in is nice, you don’t think about going and your bladder never fills up, but you want that thing out as soon as possible. Getting it out doesn’t hurt, but it is an odd feeling sensation for a few seconds. This time I did subsequently have to get a straight cath once. Very unpleasant, but it took some time for my urinary tract to normalize, another reason to get the cath out sooner rather than later, cause it’ll just get worse the longer it’s in. I’ll leave it at that.

After that it’s up/down/up/down and in/out of the bed and chair. A bit later in the day I went for a lap around the cardiac floor. Probably about the length of a football field all the way around the loop. At this point I’m really tired and weak, but was able to stabilize myself just fine and walk around the floor without any people or mechanical stabilization. From what I remember the staff only walked around with me a few times and then left it to family or by myself. At this point and until the final chest tube is out, deep breathing is not possible, so you feel very winded and have to stop for breaks, but O2 level were generally fine for me. My goal at this point is to arrive at a point where I can be cleared to go home, where I’ll be much more comfortable. I think the nurses knew I was on a mission and so they put alarms on my bed and chair so I would at least seek out help. I was a good patient and stayed where I was supposed to and pushed the button a lot so they’d be motivated to get me off to the independent tract. I was generally a really good patient, and the nurses were all really great!

At this point everything moves really slow. Going to the bathroom can take a half hour from sitting in the chair mustering strength and enough warmth, waiting for someone to help you and then slowly moving. I felt absolutely horrible, could rarely find a completely comfortable way to sit in the chair or bed. So, I would move just to get to a different position. You have no energy and obstructed muscles so you cannot really push - think about that. So, keep the stool softeners coming . . . And finally night came so I could ‘try’ to sleep again. This time only awoken every ~2 hours.

Content Warning: Just wanted to warn any readers some content in the following posts might contain descriptions you might find uncomfortable. But, if you are faced with open heart surgery or are just curious you might find it useful. I am 50 years old, don’t really have other health issues and this was my second aortic valve replacement and second open heart surgery, so this represents what is probably accelerated as compared to many others. Don’t expect your surgery and recovery to be this ideal.

Surgery Day:

I’ve written this to not only capture my experience but since I remember and experienced soo much more this second time. It picks up as I leave the kind of boring surgery prep area and go into the operating room. Thousands of surgical instruments across a dozen+ tables. The room was actually an outside facing room with a Pikes Peak view. They have me sit on the operating room table and prep for several nerve blocks, which they need me sitting up and awake for. The anesthesiologist and at least a dozen folks are there, but not the surgeon, so not sure how many others that will come. The anesthesiologist stares me straight in the eyes, asks some questions and makes a little small talk. I’m amazingly calm and reasonably relaxed, although no drugs at this point. They then lay me down on the table, get me positioned just right and shortly after that I’m gone.
What happens during this 6 hour surgery phase, and I don’t know that I’ve captured it quite the way they did it or quite the way different hospitals or hospital networks would have, but it’s probably vastly similar. Also, based on my reading and asking questions so I would understand myself. You’re pumped with I’m sure lots of drugs to prepare your body for healthy mortality so you can be resurrected safely. They probably start the process of chilling your entire body. I’ve gotten temps everywhere from 69 - 79 degrees. Yeah, you saw that right way colder body temps than you could normally survive on on your own. From what I understand this is so your organs need less blood to function yet stay active while you are on the heart and lung machine. They’ll make a 10” incision in your chest and start cutting through your sternum. For me they had to remove the original 8 wires that were wrapped around my sternum. Once that is done and your ribs are spread then they’ll need to hook you up to the heart and lung machine and stop your heart. During all this more IVs are put in including one in your neck that goes directly to your heart so drugs, fluids, etc can be pumped directly into your heart. Once your heart is stopped and I’m sure all the tests validate you are surviving on the heart and lung machine, repair work on your heart commences.
In my case, the first time around, this was a 3 hours surgery, this time it was almost 6 hours. The surgeon had explained previously that due to scarring from first surgery it would take longer, by an hour or two, but there was at least one other issue at play. So, somewhere around a year ago, might have been a little longer or shorter, so we’ll say between spring and summer of 2024, I was noticing my heartbeat, especially after eating a dinner with lots of carbs, especially red meat but could be any qty of more difficult to digest meats or really sweet deserts. I assumed it was tied to my weight (I could have stood to take some off) and possibly cholesterol. Well, I’m down >40 lbs and so far have adjusted my diet and meal planning typically to minimize dinner and focus more on lunch. This helped a lot leading up to my surgery. This ‘pounding’ heart after dinner could last 4-6 hours and keep me up well into the night. Anyways, back to the surgery. So, it appears that my pericardium sac was found to be very thin and was somewhat stuck to my heart during the surgery, further complicating things for the surgery, taking longer to get safely through to my heart and increasing risk and likely causing the pounding heart and back pain, buuuuut I still have a long road to healing ahead, so I’m not declaring anything at this point. Well, they got me through the surgery and the valve replacement was successful . . .

I wake up. I’m looking at 2 nurses. One starts talking and tells me I’m in the ICU and intubated and shouldn’t try to move. I assess and am not in any pain due to the intubation but do realize that I’m not the one breathing and that my teeth are not closing all the way. Upon further assessment my hands are strapped to the bed so I can move them somewhat but not touch any of the equipment. At least the bed seems comfortable or I’m doped up so much I’m just not feeling much. I am feeling some pain on the right side of my chest and the nurse asked if I was in any pain and wanted morphine. Oh, heck yea. I nod yes. Shortly after that she walks up to my bed and oh did that feel good, and fast! They explained that they’ll be bringing my family back in a little while, so now I just lay there. Pretty sure I nodded off, but was in and out and next thing I knew Wendy and my mom were there. They stayed for an hour or two, but it was unclear when I would be de-intubated so Wendy left to take my mom home. I did find that the pain in my right chest had returned and wasn’t real sure if it was anything specific to be worried about, so asked for a board and wrote a few things for the nurse. Nothing seemed overly concerning and she said they would start reducing the breathing machine to prepare to de-intubate me. I slowly started feeling the urge to breath on my own and after a matter of minutes (or so it seamed like) the nurse said they were ready to take it out. It’s about time! I don’t remember the exact process but once ready it took only a second and it was out. Aah, again no pain, but it did feel good to be able to reduce something. I think the nurse started asking questions and my voice was somewhere between a whisper and extremely hoarse. This would stick with me for the next 4 days, slowly getting better.

Upon one of the subsequent nurse visits into the room she asked if I need anything and so water is on the docket, but I had to settle for ice chips, which was just as good at this point. My mouth was super dry. I had no phone, so this was also a good opportunity to entertain myself through my boredom and pain so I asked if there was any kind of view out the window, and there was, so the nurse was kind enough to rotate me enough to enjoy the mountain view out the window. That was a nice distraction through sunset. After that I got a nurse every 30 - 60 minutes drawing blood, asking about pain, dispensing pain meds, bringing more ice chips. That went on all night with vitals and something being checked pretty constantly. It was a long, restful, but generally sleepless night.

More tomorrow.

Had my final in person appt with the surgeon.  Everything is looking good.  Just the 'forever' healing, but that's better than having any serious issues.  

Hey folks, so I was able to go home on Saturday, April 19. I was banging it up in the hospital and so they discharged me at 4 days, just one day longer than the first. So far at home it's been pretty good. Spent most of Sunday in the recliner, but Monday morning was up and around and Tuesday was up and about until mid-afternoon. Wednesday took a little outing and was at least around the house until evening and same on Thursday. Honestly, I've never been much to be sitting around, so this is tough for me so incrementing activities and I have soo many low intensity projects. What I am struggling with is pretty intense back pain behind my heart. I think a side effect of the pericardium sac being missing and an issue I had before surgery but more intense for the last few days probably because of overall reduced pain meds and increased activity. Otherwise I can feel my heartbeat and heart moving around, as I could before surgery, another issue of the pericardium sac being missing. I'm hoping all this settles down as time progresses.

Here’s the short version. Two of the leafs were not moving/opening. The third leaf got a hole in it, likely from the additional pressure, and causing regurgitation in addition to the stenosis. That could have spiraled so having the valve replaced now rather than later likely kept me from an even more dangerous situation.
In addition to this the pericardium sac around my heart is simply missing and there was a large amount of scar tissue from the original valve replacement creating further complications. All this led to nearly 6 hours in surgery.
The good news is that none of this will impact use of the new valve, in general. It might lead to more heart movement that I can feel.

OK, still all set for tomorrow.  Had a little scare with yet another cold a few weeks back, but that cleared up fairly quickly and I've tried the hermit thing for a few weeks now, which the dogs have loved.

OK, I've successfully completed the last big hump before surgery with the Angiogram complete last Friday.  No other blockages or repair work needed, just the valve replacement.  So, the work I've done to get my cholesterol fully in check via 35+ lbs off and finally finding a low dose statin that isn't causing side effects has been effective.  Now I coast to 4/15, hopefully!  Still working on another 15 lbs off, but I am finding that it's getting more difficult to lose weight now, even with a very healthy diet . . . 

Part Two: Right after I had the echocardiogram done my Dr started me on a statin (Rosuvastatin), and a high dose to start. I skimmed the side effects, but drugs rarely bother me so I didn't give it much thought. After a few weeks I noticed that I was having shortness of breath and chest pain, sometimes moderate to severe. After a few weeks of that I decided to go the ER as I was fairly concerned and also started getting AFIB alerts from my watch. They cleared me, but I was still concerned. I ultimately stopped the statin and things went back to almost normal. Word to the wise, if you start a statin don't be surprised if it does some weird stuff to you. I am now on a much lower dose of Pravastatin and no notable issues with that. Subsequently to that the chest pain and shortness of breath have returned. So, I am speculating that if I were to go back on the Rosuvastatin after valve replacement, I'll handle it fine with a healthy functioning heart.


Tomorrow is my pre-surgery Cardiac Cath.

Part One: Just about 6 weeks out. So, how did this episode of valve failure start for me? In 2024, I had noticed earlier in the year that my heart was starting to noticeably 'pound' especially after meals, but it would go late at night and would keep me from being able to fall asleep. In September I had a calcium score done on my heart which wasn't good and a few weeks after my 2 year echocardiogram was completed. The echocardiogram showed nearly severe aortic stenosis. After that I started a diet figuring valve replacement was going to be eminent. I'm down 35 lbs and trying to get to 50 lbs before surgery. More to follow on the subsequent drama in a future post . . . my cholesterol is in a really good spot now as well. I like to at least try to improve my overall odds of the open heart surgery not having complications.

Well, folks, for those that still have the same e-mail address as 2012, looks like my prosthetic valve is suffering from nearly severe aortic stenosis.  I'll be ramping back up for a valve replacement in 2025 . . . will keep y'all posted.

So I breezed by the 5 month mark and am feeling pretty good. My longest run up to this point is 6 miles on Thanksgiving weekend. I\'ve been pretty busy with my daughter participating in \'Journey to Bethlehem\', so I\'ve slowed a bit this last week. I have, however, decided to run in the LA half marathon on January 13, 2013 (http://www.131losangeles.com/). I\'ll be running for World Vision with funds raised going to help provide clean water for communities in Africa. Please checkout my page at http://support.worldvision.org/site/TR/TeamWorldVision/TeamWorldVision?px=1280928&pg=personal&fr_id=1820. I\'ve never participated in a marathon before so please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I train over the Christmas break and through New Years.

OK, it\'s been awhile. There hasn\'t really been too much to report. On Oct 1 I stopped taking the blood thinner (Warfarin), so I\'m free of any prescription medication. Just taking low dose aspirin, which is indefinite. Today I saw my PCP for a 3 month post-surgery check-up (a little late). He doesn\'t see the need for any restrictions and to \'listen to my body\' when exercising. I asked some specific questions about symptoms that I wasn\'t too sure about and mainly I just need to let my heart and body continue to adjusting to the new, healthy heart valve. Additionally, one of the \'symptoms\' is likely due to the weight loss and fact that I\'m exercising more consistently now. On a side note, I\'ve been torturing myself running and have worked my way up to just short of 3 miles in one continuous run. I have a few more weeks to decide if I want to attempt to begin training for the LA half marathon so I can run to raise money for a good cause. More to come . . .

This last week I had an echo completed Monday morning and then saw my Cardiologist on Tuesday morning. Based on the results of the echo and a general evaluation of my health (consistently good blood pressure, wound is healed, no other specific ongoing issues) he doesn\'t want to see me again for a year. I have to keep taking the blood thinners until October 1st and not do anything strenuous to my chest (push-ups, bench press, etc) for another month. I am good to exercise otherwise as I would like, so I think it\'s time to start training for a marathon. :) I\'ll probably post something here and there, but for the most part I\'m out of the woods and likely won\'t post very frequently going forward. Thank you all for your support and I hope this blog has been helpful for everyone to keep up on what\'s been going on. In ~15 years when I have to do this again, hopefully they can replace my valve without cutting me open, but I have ~15 years to worry about that.

Well, I returned to work last week on Aug 2, just a bit over 5 weeks after surgery. I think the timing was good so I didn\'t get too used to having everyday be a \'home maintenance and chores\' day. I\'m actually feeling great. A little tired with the longer hours working and taking Noah to football practice every night, but he\'s enjoying football and his coach made him the defense example last night with his extensive defensive background, so he felt pretty good about that. I\'ve been \'power\' walking and squeezing in some jogging over the last week and that\'s worked out pretty well so far. Next week I get a baseline echocardiogram done and then I should get one annually after that to monitor the valve and eventually define the timing for another replacement (~15 years from now).

It\'s hard to believe it\'s been 4 weeks, but that\'s where I\'m at (it seems longer). I\'m certainly feeling much better than I expected at this point, but not completely out of the woods yet. Noah starts football practice late next week so I\'ve been trying to throw the ball around with him, but given all the warnings (and not wanting to re-break my sternum) I find myself stepping out of the way of the ball so it doesn\'t land squarely on my chest. Maybe I\'m just being overly pre-cautious, but just a few more weeks and I can let up a bit. Deep breaths are still causing chest discomfort and I\'m hoping that\'s everything still healing and not because of the wires holding my chest together. The wires could optionally be removed later if I determine that they\'re bothering me. And lastly, there\'s still some lightheadedness when standing, but it\'s worse when I bend or squat for longer than 15 seconds or so and then stand up.

I guess I missed the 3 week mark yesterday, but it wasn\'t all that interesting. Today we went to see the cardiologist for the first time since before the surgery. He was very pleased with my progress and the sound my heart is now making. It didn\'t take much to convince him to take me off the blood pressure medicine, so that\'s no more (yea!!!). Now I\'m just down to the blood thinners and that\'ll take a bit more time to be rid of. I also still have a few strings that haven\'t disolved completely yet where the tube holes were, but with some time these will be gone. Lastly will be the baseline echo in mid-August. This will be the second look at my new valve and we\'ll use this echo as a baseline to monitor my valve going forward to make sure it\'s healthy and working properly and monitor for the future.

So, you might wonder what was the worst part of the entire surgery experience (assuming that it\'s all downhill from here)? Well, I\'ve thought long and hard about this and have a few candidates. First, one might think it was knowing that your heart has been stopped and being on a heart and lung machine and then a ventilator, but I don\'t remember either of these at all and just had a sore throat as a token to remember this, so I don\'t think I can use these. Second - Apparently I was quite out of it in the ICU and making unreasonable demands, like wanting to go to Disneyland, asking for a soda and demanding that I go home now. Again, I cannot remember this part of the ICU so I think this has to get thrown out as well. Third, there\'s the breathing. Wow, who\'d of thought that a three hours in surgery would lead to needing to learn to breath all over again. And a walk that\'s just 100 feet (with a walker) would be completely exhausting and lead to a naptime. As bad and uncomfortable as that was I don\'t think that get\'s the prize either. I could mention the hospital food (at least I was told it was food, but I don\'t remember it tasting like anything I would eat on purpose - er maybe it was the drugs changing the taste of the food?). But, hospital food is just too obvious. Then you come to it. Something so horrific that I found myself sitting in the sun on Monday still dealing with it. Maybe gasoline or kerosene would take care of it more quickly. Are you dying to know what it is? OK, tape residue. Yeah, tape residue. This horrific stuff must be made specifically to leave as much of itself behind as possible. And then finding it in places you don\'t remember having something taped to and wondering what was taped there that you didn\'t know about. I think the last of it has now been found and dealt with, but there\'s always tomorrow to find a little more. And yes, more than 3 weeks after surgery, I\'m still finding it. Something must be done so future patients don\'t have to deal with this nasty stuff.

So, two weeks ago I left the hospital and 17 days ago was surgery. I took a very short trip to Costco with some family and I drove for the first time today. All was good, but shifting my manual was a bit uncomfortable. As long as I stick with places a mile or two from the house I should be good for now.

OK, so I got the Dr. to half my dose last week, but after today he\'s insisting I keep taking the blood pressure medicine (although my blood pressure is remaining low without it) for now. More to take up with the Cardiologist next week. Upon a friends suggestion and OK from the Dr I\'m starting to take it at night starting tonight.

Well, it\'s been almost a week and I\'ve progressed quite a bit. I\'ve ditched the pain medication (last one I had was on Monday). There\'s a bit of chest and shoulder discomfort, especially when moving around or trying to use my arms for things. I found I could not scoop ice cream very easily if it was not really soft. I\'m now making it around the block on walks and can move at a pretty good pace walking. The dizziness/lightheadedness seems to be better (not gone) and I\'m breathing pretty normal now. I\'m also more comfortable going out to multiple places (i.e. - Dr today, pick up Lauren and go to grocery store all in one trip). We\'ve even ventured to the beach, where I took a nap.