I realize I’ve been a bit remiss in posting a new blog for quite a while. Do forgive.
Today is Tuesday, 3 February, and it marks nine weeks since Dr. Michael Sheridan hacked me open and installed that spiffy new titanium heart valve. Since you have been wondering, I just wanted to give you an update.
In short, all’s well. I think I’ll live.
It’s really weird falling asleep and being able to hear your own heart working steadily away. That valve is really doing its stuff. I am pretty much back to my old routine.
I am back to my full two-mile morning walk, which I really enjoy. Some of my colleagues say, “Ugh, how do you manage that?” I’d say the same thing myself until I started doing those walks. The answer:
It’s easy once you put your mind to it.

Taking my daily two-mile morning walk.

And trust me, I was never a morning person. But now I find it simple to hop out of bed (OK, drag myself out of bed), throw on some clothes, and head out the door.
I follow a usual route, though my roommate Leon does a different route every day to break up the routine. I prefer the regularity of the same route, encountering the same fellow walkers when the weather improves. (On Mondays I allow myself a deviation and head north instead of south on Grandview Drive.)
I’m back to my old pace, pretty much. I still get a little tired now and then and might lag a bit. For the first several weeks I was getting home between five and ten minutes later than usual, but now my two miles take just about the same 35 minutes they used to.
In another three weeks I’ll be allowed to lift more than ten pounds, which, if Tammy Jo were more affectionate, would make her happy. Now I can pick up her svelte sister Wanda June, who weighs 8.6 lbs., but not chunky Tammy Jo’s 10.8 lb. bulk.
I’m really looking forward to being able to swim again. I miss those afternoon laps in our pond. That, too, will be permitted after the three-month milestone. Actually, it’ll be dependent on the weather. I do wait for the pond to warm up!
The troublesome problem is the scar. I think it looks positively Frankensteinian, no fault of the talented Dr. Sheridan. He assures me it will fade over time and look like a wrinkle, but “over time” means about a year. The vertical slash from my chest bone to a couple inches above my bellybutton is accompanied by two horizontal slashes about three-quarters of an inch in length each perpendicular to the vertical scar and at its lowest point, from which drain tubes dangled during the first three days after my surgery. They look just as nasty.

I feel so great that I sometimes forget I am not permitted to do things like reach and tug and push and pull. Today I almost dashed to assist our office manager Melissa when she asked for hand pulling a box down from a top shelf. Fortunately (or not) my chest reminds me when I do something I’m not allowed. My body also gives me a little kick when I cough or sneeze, so I’ve been real paranoid about washing my hands  frequently and liberally using hand sanitizer after I’ve been shaking peoples’ hands or covering stories out in public.
My real visible scar was in my neck where the doctors actually sutured into place a needle that went into my artery in case I needed emergency fluids or drugs injected. Ouch! I had this sort of faucet thingie attached for several days. It meant I couldn’t roll my head to that side in bed without jabbing myself in the neck. Ouch again! After it was removed, it has taken forever for the scar to fade.
Well, you asked!
What has really helped me a lot has been your kind words and prayers. Thanks to your support and me behaving and following doctors’ orders, Dr. Sheridan pronounced me “the poster boy for valve replacement surgery.” Kinda cool, hunh?
Thanks for being there for me.