I wondered for some time since joining here and seeing these posts if I would post anything for my 10th anniversary. As that was about the 26th of Nov I've indeed missed that date.
Before going into hospital I wrote this post on my blog
http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2011/11/heart-of-matter.html
Reading that (to obtain the date) has shown me a number of things which are perhaps interesting to some.
- it is clear to me reading that how much I've learned about the whole valve thing since that time
- in my previous surgeries (such as the one before that in about the same month in 1992) I had just listened to what the surgeon had said, had some understanding of this and agreed with his decisions. That previous surgery was a homograft, the one before that a "repair".
- As this time I saw some opportunity for me to make some choice I did some research (being availed of global medical databases to search) I still wrote this : Since he (rather than me) has more experience in this matter (implanting valves) I'll be relying on him to make the final choice "when he's in there and sees what he finds".
- in this surgery I understood that I would be going into anticoagulation therapy (ratsak) but recognised that whatever it entailed I'd be able to learn about it and manage it (which I have). I never anticipated that I'd be helping others do that
- I was very concerned about how my (younger than me, now his history has gone from abstract to real, concerned, concerned about me, concerned about being a widow) wife was doing (stoic but still feeling fear)
As I have actual friends (yes I know ...) the easiest way was to point them at my blog for updates, and so it was a few days later I wrote:
http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2011/11/backup-and-recovery.html
And as Charles observed in his comment: >In balance...if you're with a woman who will dress in a bunny suit for you... your "Life Luck meter" is in the positive my friend<
indeed
Anyway as is often the way there were a few bumps in recovery and some of those bumps stretched on to a year later to emerge. Indeed its at this point I feel a bit more resolve to try to explore if I still need to be on antibiotics.
https://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2017/10/radio-labelled.html
The cost / benefit relationship of remaing on large daily doses of antibiotics is of course vexed.
Anyway ... Cheers
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