StretchL
Well-known member
Greetings, all! One and ten thousand apologies for being out of touch for so long. And one and ten thousand and one THANK YOU'S for the kind "Where's Stretch?" threads! After the Day Surgery Debacle in late Sept. I lost a couple of weeks of work, and had a reprieve of a month from AVR surgery. So... once I felt like doing anything productive again, I basically forgot about valve surgery for a while and tried to catch up on work. I finally did this past weekend.
We launched a new business venture with 3 other photographers and an agent (see link below), and the kickoff was last week. Then, once I started thinking about the AVR again, I called up JayF, who'd had a minimally invasive procedure done by Dr. Colvin an NYU, and he got me thinking about that possibility. I also spoke with Sylvia about it, because her hubby'd had the Ross, which I'd already committed to, and her father had had Colvin's minimally invasive, which was sounding better and better to me!
So I sat back a while and thought about it... Eventually I got back in touch with Dr. Stelzer and we had a good long talk. He also put me in touch with a 20 yr post op Ross patient, and he and I had a good long talk.
Finally, I talked with Stelzer again on Friday, 11/10, the last day of one of the BEST WEEKS I can remember in a LONG TIME ("Reclaiming the House, nice; Reclaiming the Senate very nice; Virginia having the honor of giving us the Senate, very VERY nice; Rumsfeld resigning, PRICELESS!").
After that talk with Dr. S I bought Noni and I our tickets to NYC. We're flying up 12/7, doing pre-op 12/8, relaxing over the weekend, and I'm going under Dr. Stelzer's golden knife for a Ross Procedure on Monday, 12/11.
I started a blog to keep all my friends and family informed of the process. I'll try to post some of the entries here, also, but, if any of you would like to be updated regularly, go to http://stretchphotography.com/blog and zap me an e-mail off of there. (Unfortunately, the html code doesn't render properly on Firefox browser for some reason...)
I do want to share a few things with you all:
First, I've missed you! I felt like I'd missed so many happy surgical outcomes once I got back and saw all the post-op posts! It's so wonderful to see how well so many of you are doing/have done. It's truly an inspiration, now more than ever, since I'm officially in the "waiting room" for only another 21 days. Congratulations to you all!
Secondly, Dr. Stelzer is working on allowing a colleague of mine to photograph my surgery. As a photographer, there's no way I'd let this kind of watershed event come to pass without it being documented. I considered, for a time, trying to shoot pictures pre and post op myself, and mounting some timer-controlled cameras in the OR, but after my hemorrhoid surgery I realized that such ideas are nonsensical. I need to forget about work for a while and just enjoy the ride. I know that sounds mighty strange, but, when you think about it, there are very few people who experience what those of us on this board experience. I'm not minimizing the pain or trauma of surgery or the difficulties of recovery, but I do feel like an journey like this should be experienced as fully as possible, and I don't want to be distraced trying to make photographs.
So I'm having my friend Chad, who's at this moment embedded with some very good guys doing some very difficult work in Afghanistan, do for me what I can't do for myself- document this experience, and hopefully give me a nice big picture of my own heart to put up on my wall.
Thirdly, I had a dream last Sunday night, the night after I'd purchased the airline tix for Noni and I. In my dream, the surgery had just finished, and I was leaving the operating room. The interesting part is that I was not being wheeled out of the OR, I was walking out, arm in arm with Dr. Stelzer, who was taking me to recovery, where he said I should get some rest. WOW! Is that cool, or what?
I felt so good that next morning... I finally felt at peace about my choice of procedure and surgeon. I think I'm ready for this emotionally, spiritually, and physically. And I have many of you, and the resource of this web site, to thank for a great deal of that security.
This Thursday I will remember you as I recall all that I have to be thankful for this year.
Glad to be back...
