10 Year Anniversary of My Second Life

Today is the ten year anniversary of my second life. In 2010 I was diagnosed with a heart defect that I did not know I had until then I was 51 years old and in heart failure through no fault of my own. I am celebrating what I consider my other birthday, the birthday of my second chance at life. I am very happy that God gave me  a second chance at life and the I have gotten the time with my friends and family. I was so exhausted at that time that I could not make it through a week of work. I was taking every Wednesday off to sleep, so I could finish the week at school.  We went to Seattle for a second opinion and were gone for over a month. They would not let me fly home. The choice was surgery a week from the day I saw the cardiologist at the University of Washington, the Wednesday or Friday after that. We took the first date.

I reread the posts I wrote in 2010 after I had my surgery and all the emotions, thoughts, fears, and the idea that could die came rushing back to me.  I do not remember most of the time in the hospital because of all the drugs they had me one. I spent most of that time sleeping.  The last thing I remember before the surgery was the anesthiologist assistant telling me that he was giving me a shot to help me relax.

I remember Tom being surprised that my feet were warm for the first time in forever. I also remember the wonderful young lady who was my nurse’s aide, and the torturous physical therapist who made me climb the stairs before I was allowed to be discharged.

The nurses loved my darling husband as everyday he brought me a rose.

I feel I am blessed to have a second change at life and I try to live each day to the fullest and look at life as an adventure. I have tried many new things since my surgery including ziplining, which I love. I feel that God gave me a second chance at life because he had.a reason for me to still be here. I hope that I am fulfilling his wish for my life and I am grateful fo this second chance.

Today I am celebrating the ten years that I have lived since my open heart surgery and looking forward to another ten years.

Coronavirus

Do I know what I am about to tell you is a fact? Can I prove it to be fact? The answer to both questions is no. I do not know if it is and I cannot at this point in time prove that it is, but it is my story.

In January my husband and I returned from a cruise to the Caribbean. We arrived home on Sunday, January 5th very late at night after an extremely long day full of layovers, the longest in LA, over 6 six hours due to mechanical issues with the plane. He thinks we picked up the virus in LA, I said maybe it came from the ship, there was a lady who had a cough which she referred to as cabin cough and people from China on the ship, neither of us know for sure, but by the end of the week we were both sick. 

We both had coughs, and were running fevers, his was worse than mine, and he has an autoimmune disorder. I on the other hand have asthma and high blood pressure along with a few other issues.  We both spent the weekend resting and he did something he never does, he spent most of the weekend in bed, resting, sleeping, and just being sick. The second week after our return we were both run down, coughing, and feeling exhausted and in need of more rest than normal. We came home from work and basically just were done for the day.  Along with the cough that lasted two months and probably a few days more we both experienced shortness of breath. I actually went to see the doctor, who said I had a VIRUS! He said to continue what I was doing it would go away on its own, as my lungs were clear, though I was coughing up some stuff, not a lot.

I had already seen the allergist who told me to up my inhaler and add in the extra one I use when my allergies are really bad. My rescue inhaler was not really doing a lot at that point. 

After two months of being sick we are both doing much better, but in the interim this whole coronavirus thing has exploded around the world and we joke that we already have had it, but we also wonder if that is the truth. I mean when we look at the symptoms we had and review people we were around on the cruise and in the long layover in LA, along with the fact that it was roughly depending on if you look at the cruise or LA anywhere from 5 to 19 days from exposure to our developing symptoms.  

Could we both have had the virus or was it just a cold or flu bug that we picked up while traveling? We do not know.

On the other hand my youngest son was seriously ill for a couple weeks in November and they were not sure if it was the flu or pneumonia, He too had all the symptoms of the Coronavirus, is that what he had or was it pneumonia? I doubt we will ever know. 

My point in telling this story is that the virus has probably been around a lot longer than most of us realize. I have heard that it started in China in September, but have not had the information confirmed. It could have started anywhere and only made the news when it reached such epic proportions and more people started to die.  We may never know, but I do know that washing our hands and avoiding large crowds seems to be one way to slow the spread and I for one am doing this. If I have had it already, great maybe that means I am immune. If I have not had I prefer not to get it and will take all necessary precautions, but I will not panic and freak out like many appear to be doing because I am of the believe that whatever will be will be, and it is in God’s hands. 

I wish you all health and pray you are taking precautions and staying safe.