So I was meaning to do a big huge update regarding my health, on the five-year anniversary of my open heart surgery… but then I realized that anniversary was back on the 19th, and I completely missed it.
Oops!
Anyway, things have changed a lot over the last five years. I lived in constant fear of catching COVID back in 2020, since not only would that have necessitated postponing my surgery… again… my medical staff fully believed that catching COVID-19 would have killed me. So I went through all of 2020 COVID-free, got my shots when they were available, yada yada yada. But since then, I have caught the bug not once, not twice, but five times over the last four years, and survived each and every time. Obviously. Since I’m writing this now.
Still have pre-diabetes. I really need to go in for my eye check, come to think of it.
I have fallen off of my cardio workout regime… I know, I know… But I have been having serious problems with the blown disks at L2 and L3, which has made running and even just walking for moderate periods very difficult. I do have an exercise bike, but can only use it sparingly.
Again, yes, I know.
Now then, I have been eating much better than I had been. Despite my relative lack of exercise, I have been able to keep my weight down. I’m not where I should be, and certainly not at an ideal weight, but I’m doing better than I was maybe two years ago, where I had lost all of my post-surgery gains.
Now then, I did have one, big setback about a year ago: I had an actual heart attack! I was feeling miserable, throwing up, and in massive pain throughout my abdomen. Everything was screaming “GALLBLADDER!” to me, but I have had similar attacks in the past, and tried to just take a nap and sleep through it. Eventually, it became unbearable, so I asked My Lovely Bride™ to take me to the ER.
Turns out that I was indeed having a gallbladder attack, and it had to be surgically removed several days later. The hospital would have removed it the night I went in, but they discovered that the gallbladder attack was causing a restriction on the blood feeding my heart, which led to a mild heart attack. Luckily, I was sitting in the ER lobby, when they discovered the telltale signs in my blood work, and rushed me off to spend several days on complete bedrest. Eventually things returned to normal, and they were able to proceed with the gallbladder removal surgery. No surgery was required for my heart, but I am on more exciting new meds for it!
I never did get that tattoo I was talking about. No Facehugger, no zipper down the scar, nothing. I just chickened out.
So, in the end, I’m still the unhealthy slob I was back in 2019, when all of this started. But I’m not quite as bad as I had let myself get to a couple of years ago. My weight is down a bit, I’m trying to be more active, spend more time in nature (buying a Jeep Wrangler helped with that), and all in all, my attitude has improved quite a bit. I’m not just sitting here, waiting to die anymore. I am actually looking forward to maybe retiring someday, and not just planning on dying at my desk in a few years.
Things are generally good.
