DAY 13 - Recovery

After a McDonald's breakfast, we walled .8 miles at the mini-mall.  This is one of those days when I wonder if I'll ever feel good again.  Darryl spoke with his brother who is a cardiologist in Nashville regarding the blood clots in my lungs.  Prior to getting his MD he was a respiratory therapist.  It sounds like this whole lung thing is a much bigger deal than I thought and it can be quite debilitating which I'm realizing. Just getting up from a chair and walking half-way across a room today leaves me gasping for breath.  The recovery is going to be long, probably a full six months and slow.  This is so discouraging. While pushing myself to walk long distances is good for my heart, for the lungs, I'm better off doing more moderate movement/exercise between periods of rest.   I wish there was a way to fast-forward my life to the middle of September.

Meds: Coumadin,  Multaq, Bupropion, aspirin 81mg, Furosemide, Namenda, Metroprolol, Zantac, potassium, multivitamin, vitamin D, I-Caps
 

DAY 5 Pre-Op

I've been through a lot the last three years.  In addition to my husband's car getting totaled by a  truck that rammed full speed into us while we were stopped at a stop sign, my son's Ford Explorer spontaneously self-ignited several hours after he got out of it, burning it to a crisp and burning the back half of his girlfriend's car and igniting a corner of her house.  Ford accepted no responsibility.  We lost my father-in-law, and several dear pets, I was diagnosed with macular degeneration, my 24-yr old son died a violent death, our house burned down with a beloved pet inside, and my 21 yr old son was attending school in Bangkok when the riots broke out, spreading throughout the city toward the area of his apartment building. It seems like there was more, but geez, I can't remember everything.  I'm sure some good stuff happened too, but like I said I can't remember everything.  The cardiologists said I had a heart attack some time in there, but I was too distraught to notice. 

So heart surgery is no big deal.  Just add it to all the other stuff I've survived. If this keeps up I'll be well on my way to surviving damn near everything. Does the Guinness Book of Records have a category for that?   But once again I have to look at the big picture, look deeper and past myself and also beyond this First World country.  Compared to those surviving war, cancer, concentration camps, starvation ... man, I'm just a piker.  From that perspective, me setting a record is so out of the question. I'd be eliminated in the first round.   

Meds:  Last day for fish oil (it has a blood thinning effect)