It's just a day...

[almost_hectic]

I'm only coming up on 11 months since my surgery date. I was just thinking today how amazingly good I feel. It got me kind of choked up emotionally. I do that fairly easily these days. Still trying to understand it. Anyway what I was going to say is that my surgical anniversary is coming up on August 11. I know it's just a day, the same as any other for the most part. But I can't stop thinking about it. I'm looking forward to it like a little kid looking forward to a birthday or Christmas! I'm still trying to decide how I even want to celebrate. Not with any fanfare or hoopla. Just something special for me to make the day meaningful. I have a couple ideas brewing but haven't come to any conclusions yet. Does anyone have any special ritual type thing they do to make the anniversary of their surgery significant? Anyway it probably just sounds like I'm rambling so I'll try to end this here.

On a side note here is a great little read about the emotional side of heart surgery for men. I read it and it got me all worked up because I so easily identify with it. http://drhoffman.com/article/when-i...-men-can-feel-emotional/#sthash.FgQ2gTED.dpbs

 

[FredW]

It maybe just a day for many of us, but Aug 11 has to be very special for you. You will find a way to celebrate it, I'm sure. I would definitely not cook, clean house, or pick up after anybody else that day. I would do something I have never done before - buy an ice cream cone and give it to some kid sitting in a grocery cart, go out to eat and order something I never had before, lie naked on the beach, or make a video of yourself giving a TED talk about what is like to live with a new heart valve and post it on YouTube. If you do, send me a pointer, please.

Whatever you do, please enjoy it.

 

[epstns]

It maybe just a day for many of us, but Aug 11 has to be very special for you. You will find a way to celebrate it, I'm sure. I would definitely not cook, clean house, or pick up after anybody else that day. I would do something I have never done before - buy an ice cream cone and give it to some kid sitting in a grocery cart, go out to eat and order something I never had before, lie naked on the beach, or make a video of yourself giving a TED talk about what is like to live with a new heart valve and post it on YouTube. If you do, send me a pointer, please.

Whatever you do, please enjoy it.

I couldn't have said it better myself, Fred! (Although I sincerely doubt that anyone would want to see me lying naked on the beach. . . )

 

[RTZdad]

It isn't just a day. Your wedding anniversary, the birth of a child, or the passing of a loved one. They're not just days either. I'm glad that August 11th will be a special day for you. Enjoy. Have a good laugh or a good cry. LIVE it. For the first few years on my valve-a-versary, I took the opportunity to reflect upon how much that day changed my life forever. Life has a tendency to quickly sweep you back into your old routine. My day, April 4th, helped me to remember how close I was to not being around for my wife and young son. Sheepishly, I admit that I fell out of touch with those feelings and began to look at my own life as "just another day". I stopped checking in on those site and began to eat poorly and let myself go. This year, after my fourth anniversary I snapped out of it. My "day" nearly passed by without notice. Once I realized that, I began to feel as though I had begun taking too much for granted. I searched through my memories of the surgery and came back and read through all of my old postings. I remembered just how lucky I was. It's been several months now and I can happily say that I am doing much better. I've lost weight, exercise regularly again and feel much better than I had in a while. I won't ever think of April 4th as just another day, and I hope you will forever feel the same on August 11. May you get to enjoy a hundred of them...

Tom

 

[almost_hectic]

It maybe just a day for many of us, but Aug 11 has to be very special for you. You will find a way to celebrate it, I'm sure. I would definitely not cook, clean house, or pick up after anybody else that day. I would do something I have never done before - buy an ice cream cone and give it to some kid sitting in a grocery cart, go out to eat and order something I never had before, lie naked on the beach, or make a video of yourself giving a TED talk about what is like to live with a new heart valve and post it on YouTube. If you do, send me a pointer, please.

Whatever you do, please enjoy it.

Thanks Fred, that's very well said. I like the way you think!

 

[almost_hectic]

It isn't just a day. Your wedding anniversary, the birth of a child, or the passing of a loved one. They're not just days either. I'm glad that August 11th will be a special day for you. Enjoy. Have a good laugh or a good cry. LIVE it. For the first few years on my valve-a-versary, I took the opportunity to reflect upon how much that day changed my life forever. Life has a tendency to quickly sweep you back into your old routine. My day, April 4th, helped me to remember how close I was to not being around for my wife and young son. Sheepishly, I admit that I fell out of touch with those feelings and began to look at my own life as "just another day". I stopped checking in on those site and began to eat poorly and let myself go. This year, after my fourth anniversary I snapped out of it. My "day" nearly passed by without notice. Once I realized that, I began to feel as though I had begun taking too much for granted. I searched through my memories of the surgery and came back and read through all of my old postings. I remembered just how lucky I was. It's been several months now and I can happily say that I am doing much better. I've lost weight, exercise regularly again and feel much better than I had in a while. I won't ever think of April 4th as just another day, and I hope you will forever feel the same on August 11. May you get to enjoy a hundred of them...

Tom

Tom, so glad you found those feelings again. They are a powerful set of emotions that can push you in the right direction as long as you can hold onto them. Hold on tight friend, welcome back and thanks for sharing.

 

[honeybunny]

It's your re-birth day. Celebrate!

 

[Zoltania]

almost_hectic, my anniversary is coming up just four days before yours. I've been thinking about it too. Somehow the change of seasons to the time of year when I was becoming symptomatic a year ago brings back lots of memories -- the angle of the light, the sound of the crickets at night, etc., are evocative. My celebration is also yet to be determined but will most likely include a martini (vodka, up with a twist).

 

[almost_hectic]

almost_hectic, my anniversary is coming up just four days before yours. I've been thinking about it too. Somehow the change of seasons to the time of year when I was becoming symptomatic a year ago brings back lots of memories -- the angle of the light, the sound of the crickets at night, etc., are evocative. My celebration is also yet to be determined but will most likely include a martini (vodka, up with a twist).

Well I live way south in Florida, so the only change of the seasons is from hot to hotter. But that does bring back the memory of try to get out and go walking when I got home from surgery and it was crazy hot out. That didn't help. Or it was raining so I'd have to walk laps around my living room, LOL.

Yeah I think for starters I should take that day off from work. Maybe even tell them I'll be out of the office every August 11...

 

[FredW]

So, almost_hetic, what are you going to do to celebrate?

 

[almost_hectic]

So, almost_hetic, what are you going to do to celebrate?

I took that day off from work. I'll likely get up early and do my daily bike ride before the sun even comes up. Then I'll come home shower and make breakfast and head out still early to my hospital where I had my surgery. Take the elevator up to the fourth floor and find a seat at the upstairs lobby outside the Surgical Progressive Care Unit. It's where myself as well as the other heart surgery patients were often seen walking in the days after surgery, complete with IV in tow and of course that lovely graduated box thingy that collected the gross fluids that came from my drain tubes. Often taking a seat to rest and look out upon the lobby and the floors below. I'll spend a couple hours there just thinking back to how overwhelming that experience was for me. And hopefully have the chance to meet a new heart surgery patient whose walking those same corridors and pass on a few words of encouragement to stay strong and commit to achieving a full recovery. and let him or her know, it can get so so much better in time. Then I think I'll go for a drive and spend the rest of the day on a quiet stretch of beach and just enjoy the amazing peaceful surroundings.

https://instagram.com/p/BBvQ0BgQ7xi/

 

[FredW]

I like that.