PairoDocs
Well-known member
Hi all,
December 12th will be the first anniversary of my mitral valve repair. It's been a bumpy but generally positive journey to recovery since then. I first want to thank all the people who have been there for Laura and me over the past year. Since my situation was unique in that I had no clue that I would ever need OHS, we never considered looking for this forum prior to the unexpected event. It took until March before I even tried to find an online community. At first the name "Valve Replacement" put me off, as I only had a repair rather than a replacement of my mitral valve. After reading through the testimonials (most seem pretty dated--but I plan on submitting my own sometime in the near future), I saw that those who went through valve repairs were as welcome as anyone else with the replacements. The common ground we shared was the OHS experience--the educated stab in the heart as it were. Thus I posted for the first time and was warmly welcomed.
Then I saw the Significant Others forum, and invited Laura to post as well. She has found the people here very supportive and helpful. She, even prior to my OHS, was a regular poster in a forum for spouses of those with Aspgerger's Syndrome, but has pretty much left them behind, as the people here are more down-to-earth and understanding of what she went through with the horror and shock of almost losing me. Frankly, Laura had some difficulty with the tendencies of some folks on that forum to use a lot of psychobabble, which sometimes made empathy difficult in both directions. Here the people are a much more wholesome lot, many our ages with kids and families all dealing with the sudden dose of mortality our surgeries exposed our families to. It's a trauma we've all endured and survived by the grace of God, and it seems that when we've 'counted coup' on the pearly gates, we appreciate life a bit more and are more compassionate to those who've experienced the same. I certainly have sensed it here from other people, and I hope I've been able to convey my genuine concerns for others, too.
The depression comes and goes, but thanks in part to the quick compassionate support of people here on this forum, the worst episode was resolved with a sense of hope for the future that at the time seemed totally lacking. The post surgical house clutter remains--if anything it's worse, but it's a living clutter--many activities with family and hobbies rather than decay and squalor. A living room full of toys, not newspaper stacks; a dining room table covered with reading materials, children's homework and projects, opal working equipment, Laura's medical journals and cooking magazines, but few or no dirty dishes. Lots of cats, but the litter pan is regularly scooped and cleaned. The scar is still annoyingly itchy at times, with parts keloid and parts regressing into a dent, but otherwise doing okay. Weight a hair up at 200 lbs., but weight gain is common for me in the fall anyway. My sternum is strong, my physical stamina has returned--and yes the stretches' effects on my posture seem to be permanent--I can lay flat on a floor or sit rigidly upright without the pain that used to accompany attempts to do that prior to all of this. I can also do rolling somersaults for the first time in my life--all the way back to standing up. Perhaps I'll resume snowboarding this winter, and take Tae Kwan Do with the kids and maybe Laura, too.
Anniversary plans? Well, it seems December 12th is rife with activity. I wish I could clone myself at least four times, as there are a lot of activities. My caving club, the Silver Sage Grotto of the NSS (National Speleological Society) has its annual banquet and raffle. I was going to go to it last year on December 15th, but, as I later told the group at their January 2008 meeting, "I really wanted to go to the banquet, but my heart just wasn't in it."
Then my kids' Tae Kwon Do class was offering a "Parents' Night Out" the same evening--free watching of the students while parents do whatever. Then the school where the kids attend has a "Live Nativity" performance that night--both kids have parts. Then Jane has a Jazz and Tap recital simultaneously with the Live Nativity. All of this in addition to my one year anniversary for OHS being the same day. What we plan on doing is me staying with KC at the Live Nativity while Laura goes with Jane to the dance recital. KC and Jane did the Nativity last year with my mother taking them, while Laura was with me in Boise. I was able to attend Jane's dance performances, including one December 7th, two days before my chordae snapped. I feel I should go to the one at the school, as I've done some visiting instruction there (astronomy and geology), while Laura could help out better with the clothes changes between parts of Jane's performance, due to her being a woman with a bunch of other little girls and their mothers doing the same. As a compromise, so Jane doesn't think I don't care, I will stay for her dress rehearsals and take her to the Festival of Trees to watch her brother perform tomorrow. I half remember a few other events also scheduled for the 12th, but why bother trying to find out what they were--except perhaps for the sake of amusement. Unless I meet Laura for lunch or something like that on the 12th, there probably won't be any celebration--except in my heart--as it were.
Needless to say, I won't have much time to come to VR to post on the actual anniversary, hence the somewhat early entry.
Sorry about the long post, but I again wanted to thank everyone here who has been so supportive here. Thanks for all of you who faithfully prayed for us--we knew the prayers really were spoken, as I often felt God's healing touch and ministry in ways I seldom did before. Laura likewise. I especially want to thank you Ross for the personal attention when we messed up and lost our account information, and the personal emails when it seems that our ISP for some unknown screwy reason rejects emails and email digests from valvereplacement.com. Even while you were going through your own personal agonies, you continued to faithfully moderate and maintain this site, where many others would have just simply given up--and left it all to Hank, while he was going through his own loss. Your strength inspires all of us. We'll continue to post here, and try to help others going through what we went through. Again, thank all of you.
Chris
December 12th will be the first anniversary of my mitral valve repair. It's been a bumpy but generally positive journey to recovery since then. I first want to thank all the people who have been there for Laura and me over the past year. Since my situation was unique in that I had no clue that I would ever need OHS, we never considered looking for this forum prior to the unexpected event. It took until March before I even tried to find an online community. At first the name "Valve Replacement" put me off, as I only had a repair rather than a replacement of my mitral valve. After reading through the testimonials (most seem pretty dated--but I plan on submitting my own sometime in the near future), I saw that those who went through valve repairs were as welcome as anyone else with the replacements. The common ground we shared was the OHS experience--the educated stab in the heart as it were. Thus I posted for the first time and was warmly welcomed.
Then I saw the Significant Others forum, and invited Laura to post as well. She has found the people here very supportive and helpful. She, even prior to my OHS, was a regular poster in a forum for spouses of those with Aspgerger's Syndrome, but has pretty much left them behind, as the people here are more down-to-earth and understanding of what she went through with the horror and shock of almost losing me. Frankly, Laura had some difficulty with the tendencies of some folks on that forum to use a lot of psychobabble, which sometimes made empathy difficult in both directions. Here the people are a much more wholesome lot, many our ages with kids and families all dealing with the sudden dose of mortality our surgeries exposed our families to. It's a trauma we've all endured and survived by the grace of God, and it seems that when we've 'counted coup' on the pearly gates, we appreciate life a bit more and are more compassionate to those who've experienced the same. I certainly have sensed it here from other people, and I hope I've been able to convey my genuine concerns for others, too.
The depression comes and goes, but thanks in part to the quick compassionate support of people here on this forum, the worst episode was resolved with a sense of hope for the future that at the time seemed totally lacking. The post surgical house clutter remains--if anything it's worse, but it's a living clutter--many activities with family and hobbies rather than decay and squalor. A living room full of toys, not newspaper stacks; a dining room table covered with reading materials, children's homework and projects, opal working equipment, Laura's medical journals and cooking magazines, but few or no dirty dishes. Lots of cats, but the litter pan is regularly scooped and cleaned. The scar is still annoyingly itchy at times, with parts keloid and parts regressing into a dent, but otherwise doing okay. Weight a hair up at 200 lbs., but weight gain is common for me in the fall anyway. My sternum is strong, my physical stamina has returned--and yes the stretches' effects on my posture seem to be permanent--I can lay flat on a floor or sit rigidly upright without the pain that used to accompany attempts to do that prior to all of this. I can also do rolling somersaults for the first time in my life--all the way back to standing up. Perhaps I'll resume snowboarding this winter, and take Tae Kwan Do with the kids and maybe Laura, too.
Anniversary plans? Well, it seems December 12th is rife with activity. I wish I could clone myself at least four times, as there are a lot of activities. My caving club, the Silver Sage Grotto of the NSS (National Speleological Society) has its annual banquet and raffle. I was going to go to it last year on December 15th, but, as I later told the group at their January 2008 meeting, "I really wanted to go to the banquet, but my heart just wasn't in it."
Then my kids' Tae Kwon Do class was offering a "Parents' Night Out" the same evening--free watching of the students while parents do whatever. Then the school where the kids attend has a "Live Nativity" performance that night--both kids have parts. Then Jane has a Jazz and Tap recital simultaneously with the Live Nativity. All of this in addition to my one year anniversary for OHS being the same day. What we plan on doing is me staying with KC at the Live Nativity while Laura goes with Jane to the dance recital. KC and Jane did the Nativity last year with my mother taking them, while Laura was with me in Boise. I was able to attend Jane's dance performances, including one December 7th, two days before my chordae snapped. I feel I should go to the one at the school, as I've done some visiting instruction there (astronomy and geology), while Laura could help out better with the clothes changes between parts of Jane's performance, due to her being a woman with a bunch of other little girls and their mothers doing the same. As a compromise, so Jane doesn't think I don't care, I will stay for her dress rehearsals and take her to the Festival of Trees to watch her brother perform tomorrow. I half remember a few other events also scheduled for the 12th, but why bother trying to find out what they were--except perhaps for the sake of amusement. Unless I meet Laura for lunch or something like that on the 12th, there probably won't be any celebration--except in my heart--as it were. Needless to say, I won't have much time to come to VR to post on the actual anniversary, hence the somewhat early entry.
Sorry about the long post, but I again wanted to thank everyone here who has been so supportive here. Thanks for all of you who faithfully prayed for us--we knew the prayers really were spoken, as I often felt God's healing touch and ministry in ways I seldom did before. Laura likewise. I especially want to thank you Ross for the personal attention when we messed up and lost our account information, and the personal emails when it seems that our ISP for some unknown screwy reason rejects emails and email digests from valvereplacement.com. Even while you were going through your own personal agonies, you continued to faithfully moderate and maintain this site, where many others would have just simply given up--and left it all to Hank, while he was going through his own loss. Your strength inspires all of us. We'll continue to post here, and try to help others going through what we went through. Again, thank all of you.
Chris
