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Peter Easton
Hi folks --
Have been out of electronic circulation for quite some time, so very best to old friends and greetings to this year's new members. I had my AVR early last September -- just a week before the Sept 11th tragedy -- and went back to work in mid-to-late October. Things then commenced to get pretty busy, as I am a sort of one-man show in my academic job and, in addition, my good wife had been bearing the brunt of family duties plus her own work during my absence.
But the long and the short of it is that my recovery has been very smooth and I've consistently felt peppier -- leastwise since late October -- than I did before the operation. In fact, compared to increasing breathlessness in the pre-surgery months, it felt for a while as though I were running on ethyl.
We are presently overseas in the MidEast visiting my wife's family, a visit scheduled years ago to coincide with a period when she could get off work and our kids would be of an age to really learn from another culture (half of their own heritage, in fact) and enjoy interchange with their cousins. The September 11th events gave us some real pause, but we decided not to miss the window of opportunity, and people here have been most supportive and welcoming.
In any case, I am very happy with recovery to date and have felt pretty much entirely normal for the last six or seven months. I continue to have periodic bouts of mild depression, handled through medication and reminders to take it easy (!), but that's much the same as the situation pre-op.
I have another checkup upon return with the cardio and we will see the story of the tape -- or computer screen, I guess -- at that point. I even was planning to get back to some long-distance running (way back: like ten years previous before valve problems surfaced), but the doctors advised lots of walking instead (!), more, I think, to avoid wear and tear on a 60-year-old's knees than for heart-related reasons.
At odd moments, I think of the virtual certainty of another operation something like a dozen years hence, if all goes well, and wonder what options technology will then have to offer. But one day at a time.
Much cheer and good wishes to all now recovering from their surgery!
Peter
Have been out of electronic circulation for quite some time, so very best to old friends and greetings to this year's new members. I had my AVR early last September -- just a week before the Sept 11th tragedy -- and went back to work in mid-to-late October. Things then commenced to get pretty busy, as I am a sort of one-man show in my academic job and, in addition, my good wife had been bearing the brunt of family duties plus her own work during my absence.
But the long and the short of it is that my recovery has been very smooth and I've consistently felt peppier -- leastwise since late October -- than I did before the operation. In fact, compared to increasing breathlessness in the pre-surgery months, it felt for a while as though I were running on ethyl.
We are presently overseas in the MidEast visiting my wife's family, a visit scheduled years ago to coincide with a period when she could get off work and our kids would be of an age to really learn from another culture (half of their own heritage, in fact) and enjoy interchange with their cousins. The September 11th events gave us some real pause, but we decided not to miss the window of opportunity, and people here have been most supportive and welcoming.
In any case, I am very happy with recovery to date and have felt pretty much entirely normal for the last six or seven months. I continue to have periodic bouts of mild depression, handled through medication and reminders to take it easy (!), but that's much the same as the situation pre-op.
I have another checkup upon return with the cardio and we will see the story of the tape -- or computer screen, I guess -- at that point. I even was planning to get back to some long-distance running (way back: like ten years previous before valve problems surfaced), but the doctors advised lots of walking instead (!), more, I think, to avoid wear and tear on a 60-year-old's knees than for heart-related reasons.
At odd moments, I think of the virtual certainty of another operation something like a dozen years hence, if all goes well, and wonder what options technology will then have to offer. But one day at a time.
Much cheer and good wishes to all now recovering from their surgery!
Peter
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