Hi Laura - well you had your surgery yesterday - here's hoping for a speeding recovery. I'm 33 and expecting my third child. I had my valve replacement at 28 when my daughter, my first child, was 6 months old. I can relate to you in a lot of ways. I did eat a lot more healthily, exercise more and lost many friends - mostly that came from having children too I think though. Now, 5 years later, I'm somewhere in the middle of the way I was then and the "old" me. The shock, trauma, anger, processing of having surgery was a good 2 years for me. I still have the very rare moment I get down or angry about it. My surgery wasn't a cure, but a stop gap. I'll need my aortic valve done sometime and they'll probably replace my mitral again at that point. I have calcification through-out the chambers so I'll never be running marathon (thank God - an excuse)!
In time you too will likely "sweat the small stuff" again, but not like before. I do have normal worries like everyone else, kids, money, work etc. I am a little less patient with people who complain about stuff that seems small to me. We all have our crosses to bare and ours (OHS patients) are some pretty hefty ones.
I look forward to seeing your posts to say you're well on the mend!
