28 Days Later ...

It's been 28 days since my open-heart surgery for aortic dissection. Just had my first cardiologist follow up, she wants to keep me walking for at least one more month before she clears me for running. This isn't exactly the end of the world, since I lose weight faster walking than running, and losing a few pounds now will help with the running later. I am already past the 1-mile mark, my next goal is to try to score two walks per day, which hopefully means outdoors, I am not really looking forward to even looking at our treadmill.

I feel like a million bucks, except that I am still getting used to sleep near-horizontally, hard to make that transition after spending 3+ weeks sleeping sitting propped on pillows. I did get cleared to drink up to two cups of coffee per day, but the low sodium/low cholesterol diet are going to be a long-term concern, and I am guessing it's going to be interesting how to balance the low sodium intake with the sodium depletion once we head into the worst part of the summer.

BTW, that first cup of coffee was just glorious.

Action shot of what it looks when I'm not doing a damn thing

 

Had an EKG today, came out normal. It is also the first day since my operation that I have crossed the 1000-step mark and it's only 1 PM.

Finally, either my primary care doctor is 13 years old, or there's some kind of filter that kicks in after your 50th birthday and everyone looks so obviously young. But seriously, she's either 13 years old or a vampire and either way I feel lucky to have her on my corner.

The rumors of my demise have been slightly exaggerated

 

I'm the luckiest guy in the world.

Just four days ago I had open heart surgery to graft an aortic dissection. My ER doc had me flown across the county to what had to be the best level one cardiac care center on the East coast, these folks took excellent care of me and I'll be forever grateful.

Plus I got to fly in a Helo, which is cool.

I'm awed, blown away and humbled by how people rallied to help me. My mother in law Paula Lopez , my mom Gloria Vera and my aunt Rosa Perez basically raced to the airport, and I've spent so much time on video calls with Ivette Vera , Pedro Javier Vera and Mario Vera that it feels like they are camping out outside of the hospital. My running friends at Strava and Squadeasy have been absolutely incredible, and so have been my coworkers (except my boss lectured me, something along the lines of "you are not allowed to get sick like this ever again").

I know that a lot of people were praying for my recovery, thank you all and please say a good word for the folks at the Reston Hospital Center ER, the medevac air crew in and EVERYONE at INOVA Fairfax Cardiac Center.