JULY 2008                     JULY 2009

It was exactly one year ago today that I had my
aorta valve replacement operation and exactly one year ago today I had my last
cigarette!!

It was a year ago today
that the surgeon put a pig valve in a Jewish man's body--didn't they know better
than that? Not only was/is non-kosher it is also the cause of the many problems
I had. That's a joke, folks!!

In any case I won't go into all the problems I
had--I have already blogged about the before during and after--though I will
never forget the 4-5 months of anxiety attacks that I had no warning about and
didn't handle very well.

July 2008                       july 2009           

The scar has faded very nicely and I haven't, and
won't, according to my doctors, get back to 100% but I certainly feel I am back
to 90%.

I would advise anyone who is going to have any kind
of heart surgery to talk to others who have been through it as doctors don't
give you enough information about what can happen after and during recovery. I
would, also, insist on, at least, one month of rehab. I had none and it affected
in many adverse ways.

I have gone from taking 16 medicines down to 8. I am
still having throat and hearing problems directly attributed to 'going under'
for the operation. I did have P.A.D. before the operation and just recently had
another procedure for it though it didn't make much of an improvement.

Two months after the operation I was diagnosed with
C.O.P.D. I am not sure if the operation had anything to do with it or the 60+
years of smoking 2-3 packs of cigarettes everyday or a combination of both.

I have stopped going to doctors every 4-6 weeks and,
instead, go to the specialists in January and July and see my primary once a
month. I have recently obtained a home blood thinner testing machine which saves
a lot of doctor's visits.

Within the past two weeks
I have seen my heart doctor--he said, 'See you in 6 months and I would like you
to have an ecocardigram done," followed by seeing my dentist who, also, will see
me in 6 months for a cleaning. My podiatrist, dermatologist and urologist all
want me to come back in 6-8 weeks--I told them I had to check my appointment
book and would call to make an appointment. What I didn't say was that I would
make the appointment for January. Next week I see my vascular surgeon to follow
up on the procedure he performed last month and to find out exactly what he did
and then my last specialist appointment, my ophthalmologist. Hopefully, after 3
previous appointments he will finally find out what is causing my eye problems.

I was told by many people that it would take a year
to recover from the operation and they were, right more or less. I don't have
the energy, or stamina, that I had before the operation and my sleep patterns
have completely changed. I have become claustrophobic and find it almost
impossible to lay down on my back which eliminates many tests (MRIs, for
instance) that I can take.

I haven't had any heart
problems since July 21, 2008 so I guess it wasn't too much of a mistake putting
a pig valve in A Jewish man's body.
:O)