Length of this trip

I was recently asked by a friend of mine how long I have been on this journey, and I realize I have not written on that topic, short of anniversary posts. This story was originally too long and boring, so I have shortened it.

Part One

In February, 2002, I started getting some strange symptoms of an aching in my chest. My doctor has done a full physical and treadmill on me less that 9 months before and my heart was perfect then, so he told me I was working too hard and to take some aspirin.

The next marker I noticed was when I was on vacation in July of 2002. I went out to run on the beach and noticed that I had no wind, and my heart was beating abnormally hard after just a short while.

In February of 2003, I went back to my regular internist because I continued to feel lousy. This time my internist did an EKG and read the results. He came back into the room and said, “Mr. Connelly I have having my nurse drive you to the hospital right now, and I have scheduled emergency surgery for tomorrow morning for you to receive a pacemaker.” At that point, my life was changed forever.

That night, alone in bed in the hospital the night before my surgery, I made my peace with God and prepared myself in case of death. Ever since that moment, I have not been the same person. I had let go of my fear of death.

Muscle Atrophy

So my last couple of posts have been related to muscle atrophy and I read something earlier today where someone mentioned their experience of muscle atrophy as a result of CHF.

I just sent a post to one of the mailing lists I belong to concerning this to see if others with CHF have experienced this.  I am very curious to see what reaction this gets.

My guess right now is that this may not a well known issue because most persons with CHF are older instead of young and it is not so noticiable.

Slow Degeneration

In reference to my last post, my legs are probably 25% of their original strength and my upper body, 50% of original.   I tried to use the 30 days of no travel in Dec. and Jan. to build back up, but it seems to have been almost to no avail.

There are some stem cell studies supposed  to start in Feb. near where I live and I hope to get into them when I return from this trip.  Technology can be terrific.  At least it provides hope.