Athletic Training Prospects with Uncertain Medical Future

 ALTHOUGH I am grateful((to God) for the time and quality of life He has so graciously granted me for this limited season, I get the disturbing impression that somehow the the clock is ticking down on me. Before the cancer bomb hit me in October,2025with no forwarning, my fitness level was sky-high...now when I walk I often feel as if I'm kicking down into the pavement with each walking step.  I'm still fighting the good fight with my training, practicing slow running in the back yard and rocking simultaneously back and forth on my feet...running in place seems to have slowed down, however, as a regular workout routine. Depot Parkrun 5K is a fitting challenge if I want to finish walking or running the course to completion....I just need to make it a priority.     This coming Saturday morning could well be too wet with the high probability of rain that they're forecasting.  The time is now approaching midnight...and I hear thunder in the background outside.   Tomorrow I'm going with Melissa to get blood drawn and another chemotherapy infusion session, to last much of the afternoon.And then later in the week I have another MRI to undergo.  That procedure, along with its analyzed results, could drastically change how stable of a life I have to expect at least for the short term, looking at my pain here with headaches, with me longing for release from having to pay attention to them and communicate my feelings to Melissafor for some relief and added life quality.  I just need to put everything about myself into the hands of the Lord...He's the Boss and has everything covered...                                                       

A Day in My Life Undergoing Treatment

The time this evening has been steadily creeping onward...now it's more than a quarter past nine.  This article is more or less a personal journal entry about my voyage through this day in my life.  I'm currently about halfway through my regimen of chemotherapy and radiation therapy rounds to treat my diagnosed brain cancer.  Once that's though, probably at the end of 2025, there will be a short waiting period before medical testing to determine the treatment plan's effectiveness at stymieing the advancement of this aggressive variety.  After my radiation session this afternoon, we sat with two oncology physicians, who to me seemed more concerned about my reactions, especially to the radiation treatments.  Before the onset of pill-form chemotherapy and radiation appointments on November 17th, I was rather concerned about being able to sustain them all, seeing how adversely Melissa reacted the previous year...especially with her toxic two doses of chemotherapy.  Nevertheless, I used the remaining, somewhat effective brain mechanism I still have that provides will power to discipline myself into rock-running an effectively eleven-mile home living room virtual run while watching Alex's NYC Marathon conclusion filmed in 2022...it worked.  I feel that I have no other real choice than to follow this prescribed program for recovery and health quality and extension.  And doing it with a positive attitude goes hand in hand with that. Worst case scenarios have me leaving this world after a considerably shortened future...or this world leaving me, but I think I have some significantly better outcomes to entertain as realistic possibilities as long as I stay true to the prescribed program.  And that includes regaining the lost endurance I had the previous year when I finished a marathon to my liking and ran several other long-distance races, along with a slew of Parkrun 5Ks.  Why not just see if things don't improve in 2026.  My energy is fine...why not work to enhance it...

Possible Side Effects of Upcoming Cancer Treatments

Well, it looks as if I'm about to embark on a series of troubling treatments for my diagnosed cancer, starting with tomorrow's facial mask fitting at the UF Medical Plaza for my upcoming rounds of radiation.  In conjunction with that future scenario, full of predicted possible side effects including fatigue, nausea and constipation, one of my physical therapists yesterday paid us a house visit.  His intentions were spot-on although I had some difficulty understanding the technical jargon he used about getting a new exercise bicycle and walking aid.  It's going to be a test of my will to stand steady in the midst of adversity.  I've already written that I'll be focusing on simple things like showing up and following through, without getting hung up on levels of achievement.  Since at this stage I'm not envisioned as a "resident" hospital patient, I'll be taking on more personal responsibility for the needed self-care that will be greatly enhanced by that which my sweet Melissa will be providing me.  Standing up, successfully navigating the toilet and cleaning (and drying) myself in the shower are basic functional activities that fatigue and stressors on my digestive system could well challenge in terms of my ability to follow through with them.  Also, staying active regarding physical exercise...including future weely Parkrun 5Ks...has been a suggestion from my oncologist.  I think it's important to "will" myself into action, at least on a short-term basis, once the effects of my treatment begin to sink in.  I don't know the exact date my chemotherapy/radiation will begin, but I hope to be ready for it as the almost certainly unpleasant routine settles in...

Recovering from Grave Brain Surgery: Life is Fragile

 No expectations.

I am retired, with a memory of colleagues who passed on soon after they finished their careers...one died while still employed and looking ahead to retirement.  Physically, I am in very good condition and have a lot of cardiovascular endurance.  Unfortunately, I have cancer.  Brain cancer.  And it seems to be terminal.  It wasn't diagnosed until exactly a week ago when Melissa drove me to the UF Health emergency room, where they did the ct-scan on my head that showed the golfball-size tumor.  Without ever going home, I was medically transported to the Shands Neurosurgery building off SW Archer Road.  The brain surgery was performed early Friday afternoon there by Dr. Koch and his able team.  The tumor's analysis confirmed its malignancy and aggressive nature. After experiencing an absolutely unncessary psychologically traumatic night in their intensive care unit under the control of bullying RN Antonio, I was deemed recovered enough to (gratefully) transfer to a "normal" med-surgical floor, where I stayed another night before being discharged yesterday.  I'm at home, now, very well-cared for by my sweet Melissa, and am sitting in the dining room typing on this Google Chromebook.  My plan is to take each day as it comes, speak frankly with love, and enjoy the life I have left coming to me.  It's fragile, way too fragile for my tastes!  So, I'm happy that the Dolphins, Dodgers, Buccaneers and Mississippi Rebels all won...but it would have been okay had they lost.  In my present life, my priority is to maintain myself in a positive mental attitude and to encourage recovery while minimizing my head pain without seeking any chemical dependence.  Peace is a wonderful thing, and I'm grateful that Melissa is here with me providing it..

Retirement Fine, Encountering and Meeting Challenges

A friend today asked me what I thought about retirement so far, and my answer was quick and unequivocal: I've yet to wish I hadn't retired. Not one instant.  Now suppose circumstances had dictated me having continued on with my postal job, the specific assignment of which focused on receiving, processing and dispatching registered mail that came in from area offices in the afternoon and early evening.  I performed that assignment from January 2019 through November 2024...nearly six years.  In the middle of it all COVID happened, as well as my open heart surgery.  Melissa and I both came down with COVID in July 2023...it wiped out my summer vacation but we both recovered well from it. My son Will tragically passed away in July 2024, and Melissa experienced the trauma associated with breast cancer while receiving excellent medical care. The month following my retirement, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and events were set into motion leading to my March prostatectomy this year.  I have yet to physically feel the direct effects of illness, although my medical treatment...the surgeries in particular...hampered my activity and forced me through some brief seasons of pain.  I'm still getting cancer treatment, so it's a matter of me showing up for each day in a positive, constructive way to engage in exercise and keep my mind active.  Since my country collectively decided last November at the polls to go full-bore fascist and idolize a 34-count convicted felon, I had found myself exposed to the abuse associated with abusive national leadership...and that abuse is continuing.  I have decided, though, to avoid acknowledging its significance in my life and have been cleaning up my social media accounts from sites and posts that only aggravate the situation, instead stressing areas that are more conducive to my mental and physical well-being. I have already vowed to myself not to allow drama and manipulation to govern my daily existence, instead creating my own structure of personal discipline that keeps me strong with a positive outlook. I'm hoping that you're faring well in your own life, and that you don't see yourself as just a passive victim of circumstances but rather have a great deal of responsible control over how your own day goes.  And I mean each and every day...         

People in Groups: Always a Power Struggle

In the preamble to the first Lord of the Rings movie, Fellowship of the Ring, the "Lady of the Woods" elf Geladriel (played by Cate Blanchett) explains the origin of the conflict about the special Ring of Power that the evil spirit Sauron used to bind under his domination all of the rings he "gifted" to the different nations of beings.  To the nine men-kings he bestowed each with a ring, for more than anything they coveted power.  Yet upon each's passing, they found themselves completely bound to Sauron, abject slaves to his will. Still, to the extent that they could strike terror in the hearts of ordinary people, I suppose that they would have derived much pleasure from this evil bullying.  I think J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of this fantasy series, had much insight into the basic, rank human nature that is much more universal among our species.  The truth is that you can't get three people together into a group without them sorting out their respective ranks...from top to bottom.  I'm not just theorizing this: I've lived it, going on 69 years come this October.  Barbara Streisand once sang, "People who need people are the luckiest people in the world."  But beyond the benefits and protections that an advanced civil society can bestow on me, I find it annoying, demeaning and stifling to find myself entangled within groups...and I'm sick of that sorting of pecking orders. Just before the Beatles broke up in late 1969, there were two group meetings, one on the 8th and the other on the 20th.  In the earlier meeting, John Lennon made the all-too-reasonable proposal that he, Paul and George each be accorded four songs on their future albums, with one or two given to Ringo. Paul, full of his perceived role as the the group's leader, rejected John's offer.  After Lennon's successful concert adventure a few days later, he announced his "divorce" from the Beatles on that second meeting twelve days later.  There was a flexibility, a willingness to work things out, in Lennon's original proposal, but people stuck in their minds with power aren't rationally reasoning things out.  The general problem I personally see in this translates into all social situations, whereby there are individuals consumed with their own sense of standing within the group, and they will sabotage any meaningful input from me while putting me down in what they regard as my "proper place". I am so sensitive to this that I don't even want to "show up" in some of the gatherings offered at church or in connection to the Parkruns I frequent...and when I was at the post office I tended to avoid union meetings: now it's retirement reunions I steer clear of.  But you know, I can always attend and just sit in the back and keep my mouth shut or just engage in small talk...

Taking Physical Recovery a Day at a Time

I'm continuing to gradually make progress in my recovery from my March 6 prostatectomy surgery that removed a cancerous prostate.  It's a day-by-day process in which I have to be careful between resting enough to allow my body to heal and challenging it in small increments to recover its previous strength and functionality.  While this is going on, I have upcoming appointments, the first one in a couple of weeks with my physical therapist, and then...following a blood test to assess my PSA (protein-specific antigen) level that might indicate some residual cancer remaining in the body...a late-May meeting with my urologist/surgeon to determine my future path of treatment (if necessary).  But there's no point in me being concerned about any of this: through it all I plan to take each day as it comes and do my best with the time allotted me...sounds a bit like Gandalf's advice to Frodo, doesn't it...

Staying Positive Through Life's Complications

In the midst of a number of complicating interruptions to the intended flow of my life into retirement, I am still building a foundational structure on which to live out each day in a way that nurtures my competency, intellect, physical health and social relationships.  It does help for me no longer having to adhere to a 40-hour work week while being in a location under the authority and restrictions imposed by others, not to mention being freed from making the 17-mile round trip each day through often treacherous traffic.  My closest relationships, by far the most important of which is with Melissa, are supportive and want me to be strong, healthy and happy.  I think I'll try to satisfy them by being just that, whatever distractions happen to come my way.  And the recent prostate cancer diagnosis and my scheduled surgery this Thursday to remove said prostate is one of the major ones...

Miss the Good Old "Boring" Days

I'm looking forward to attending my dear daughter Rebecca's wedding this coming Saturday...it will take place in Lakeland.  My wishes and prayers are with the two of them as they stake out their lives together.  I will always miss and grieve for my son Will, who passed away last summer.  My wife Melissa's sister is now a patient in the same hospital where I'll be undergoing my prostatectomy surgery on March 6th...we are likewise praying for her successful treatment and recovery from her afflictions.  Some folks get restless and discontent over what they perceive as their boring lives.  I, on the other hand...other than my daughter's marriage...would be very happy with a vast sea of relatively eventless days stretched out before me.  But that doesn't seem to be in the works anytime soon...

My Favorite Songs of 2024

Back in July this year I noticed that I hadn't been keeping up with this year's new music, much less listen to the "hits" as they had their "rotations" of radio play.  So I listened to some albums, the best of them being The Smile's Wall of Eyes and Green Day's Savior. They're both very good, but as far as standout tracks are concerned, only three made a deep impression on me...that was in July: click HERE to read the article I wrote about it on July 9th.  I never did go deeper into current album releases, what with tragedy and medical crisis permeating my life for the remainder of 2024.  But those three songs remained strong and meaningful for me, and now that I can instantly call them up to play with my Amazon Music account, I have listened to them many, many times over the past few months.  So there won't be any long list of my top favorite songs of 2024: just three.  At #3, it's Read the Room by The Smile.  As I wrote back in July, this is a British alternative rock band composed of Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, along with drummer Tom Skinner.  Wall of Eyes is their second album...and they must all dig their little group because they just released a third studio album.  Read the Room has cryptic lyrics...that's all right since many of my favorites over the years were pretty difficult to understand as well.  It's the musical counterpoint going on here that drew me to it, especially during the complex instrumental ending.  At #2, it's impossible not to understand the words to Green Day's lyricist and vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong's powerful The American Dream is Killing Me, which pretty much sums up my own thoughts as to the course of our society as it has largely degenerated over recent years.  Finally, my favorite song from 2024 is also from The Smile: I Quit.  I quickly found myself attached to it not only for its incredibly blunt and pertinent lyrics about making a permanent transition and taking a new path, but also for its haunting and very complex music.  Below are some of the  words...  

Wild ghosts

Wild feelings

Leaning windmills

A dead drop

This is the end of the trip

A new path

Out of the madness

To wherever it goes

To wherever it goes

And wherever it goes

And wherever it goes

And wherever it lies

And wherever it lies 

I liked this song before learning of my son's passing and not long thereafter deciding to retire.  It reminded me of the ending to Lord of the Rings, when aging Bilbo Baggins utters the following line as he is about to board the boat to take him on to the Grey Havens: "I think I am quite ready for a another adventure!"  May your own new adventures bless you...sometimes, though, they come whether you're ready for them or not...

Quote of the Week...from Sting of the Police

"When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around"...by Sting of the Police 

The Police, a highly talented British reggae/punk-rock/jazz trio from the late seventies and early eighties, is one of my all-time favorite musical acts...I was not at all happy when they broke up after only five (incredibly good) albums.  The above quote, penned by their chief songwriter and front man Sting (Gordon Sumner), is actually the rather long title of a track on their 1981 third LP, Zenyatta Mondatta.  It is also a heavily-repeated chorus that rams home the deep...but oft-neglected wisdom...of making do with what you have.  It speaks to the tendency of folks to let themselves become mired in discontent and grief over their situations instead of working in a more constructive manner with the circumstances they face.  This spring and summer has been especially difficult for myself and Melissa, and our "world" has definitely fit the parameters of this song.  Not that the rest of our little planet isn't undergoing some trying times as well, and I could easily slide into a state of hopelessness by focusing on one thing after another that is "running down".  Yet in the middle of this there is hope and much to be grateful for.  That doesn't mean denying the tragedy and troubles, but rather to place them in a broader perspective and to realize that life by its very nature is a struggle...and embracing that struggle is indeed the way to "make the best of what's still around"...

Recent Inclination for Reading Nonfiction

If you've been reading this blog lately, you might have noticed that, while I'm still doing my weekly science fiction short story reviews, just about all of the rest of my reading has been non-fiction, specifically oriented toward self-improvement, fitness and health.  Although I'm not yet prepared to deliver a more detailed review of the book I've just finished reading, Outlive by Dr. Peter Attia, it, along with much of the material I've recently consumed, has made a deep impression on how I view fitness and health...especially at my age of 67.  Much of what I read only affirmed a lot of what I had already been doing, which on the physical level was self-empowering instead of self-enfeebling following a medical diagnosis I had lived with after late 2011, culminating in corrective open-heart surgery in 2021.  The famous Christmas Story movie line "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!" comes to mind as I resisted the impulse to take it easy and not take any chances exerting myself...yet my own thoracic surgeon assented to my choice to stay active (within certain limits), which I did for more than a decade before undergoing the procedure. Yes, I feel vindicated through my recent readings, but also challenged as there are other measures I could have been taking but haven't.  A lot of this will come out in my review article on Attia's book: I should write it in the next week or so...

Swimming: My Past, Present and Future

Although I grew up in south Florida just a few miles from the beach and visited it numerous times with my family, I didn't learn how to swim until I was twelve years old, and that was only because my high school, in 1968, just had its own swimming pool built.  Before, in the ocean, I would just get out in the waves in water nearly over my head and float on my inner tube...the fact that I couldn't swim didn't seem to bother anybody!  Yet if I got in a swimming pool, I'd be afraid of the water, go figure!  Even after learning to swim, though, I got no practice in my swimming style...I was taught the rudiments of the American freestyle crawl stroke that one time and that was it.  In physical education class in high school, I was always by far the slowest in swimming...that was pretty humiliating.  It was only when my kids were growing up and taking their own swimming lessons that I became more serious about improving my swimming skills...but still I lagged behind.  I did, at the advanced age of 40, finally learn to float on my back, yet I still haven't figured out treading water.  Back in 2011, seeing a friend doing laps at my nearby YMCA pool using the breaststroke, I decided that year to try to develop it on my own.  I seemed to be making some slow progress, but a serious medical diagnosis later that year sidelined this project, and I didn't resume it...until now, some twelve years later.  What I'd like to do is develop most of the basic swimming skills, including at least the crawl, breaststroke, backstroke, and treading water, to the point where I can go for a sustained period performing pool laps.  I've set aside Friday evenings to get pool time at my local gym, and I do have several instructive YouTube videos to draw upon for guidance. It should be a fun adventure of sorts.  What to do with it all?  Just swim more on my own, I guess. Although swimming is regarded as a generally kinder sport on the body than running, it is more limited regarding public racing events in comparison to the latter because of the constraints of providing suitable water venues.  I've been kind of dismayed by this, since this has made the sport a bit more elitist than is running/walking, which has gained a lot of popularity among folks-at-large and allows more participation at slower levels of ability...

Spreading Self Thin over Projects...and Enjoying It

I'm looking at probably too high a number of personal projects I'm currently engaged in, wondering whether I'm spreading myself too thinly.  The answer is likely "Yes", yet I have decided to do just that while enjoying the essence and variety of the different areas.  Several foreign languages, writing, reading, distance running/walking and mathematics in its various forms occupy much of my "free" time and attention, and to be sure progress in any one of them isn't steep, to say the least.  Yet that doesn't bother me.  I enjoy the process of gradually accumulating known vocabulary in various languages while picking out patterns and meanings in what I hear.  My blog writing, allowing for an occasional missing day, is a personal discipline I've been true to for years, and plan to continue it as long as I am able.  I read, primarily either science fiction short stories or books...primarily in audio format...I've checked out from the library.  I, in turn, write my reactions on this blog after reading them.  My running has never been fast enough to command anyone's attention, although as I age, I find myself more and more eligible for age category awards in races even when finishing far behind most of the young whippersnappers out there. And math, which I've always had a very high aptitude for, is a pure academic subject for which I see no personal practical value other than eventually teaching it either as a tutor or in a part-time classroom setting following my retirement. Add to all this a wonderful wife and family and more passive interests like stargazing and watching sports...and occasional travel adventures...and it all adds up to one word: fun. I've also noticed a correspondingly higher level of contentment, gratitude and optimism after I made the conscious personal decision to studiously avoid the news, in all its biased and sensationalist forms...

Podcaster's Show about Worry Spurs My Own Reactions

On yesterday's Mindset Mentor podcast, personal development coach Rob Dial laid out a simple strategy for dealing with worry.  Worry is an insidious feeling that can eat away at happiness, but Dial claims that studies have shown that some 85% of what people worry about never happens, and of the remaining 15%, fully four out of five aren't anywhere near as bad as imagined...leaving 97% as a figure of probability weighing against worry.  No, I don't know where he got those figures, but I'm flowing with the podcast to see where he leads.  Dial's prescription for worry IS something that I wholeheartedly agree with: action!  Of course, if you're worried who the next president will be or how the Russian invasion of Ukraine will end, your action against the massive scope of the situation isn't necessarily going to alleviate it or even end your worry.  So, I'd qualify Dial's suggestion and say that if you're worried about something going on in your own personal life, then of course action accompanied by a resulting sense of progress in dispelling the problem is a sensible road to go down.  Otherwise, it's like the Serenity Prayer (written by Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr), with serenity being the polar opposite of worry: "God give me the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed; Give me courage to change things which must be changed; And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other." I can guarantee that the world will never run out of things to worry us about, but we do have a choice in how we react to them... 

A Year After Surgery

A year ago, yesterday I was lying in the hospital...Shands Cardiovascular to be more precise...recovering on the intensive care floor from the previous day's open-heart surgery.  It was elective: I walked right on in there, knowing in advance I was in for some pretty deep "stuff" for the ensuing weeks.  Nine years earlier, the problems leading to this event were diagnosed: a defective heart valve, bicuspid and congenital, most likely leading up to the adjacent aortic aneurism.  But my thoracic surgeon wasn't ready for surgery then, but rather had me returning for annual echo cardiograms and CT scans to measure the aneurism's width.  It wasn't until 2021 that he decided to go ahead with the procedure, not because of the aneurism, which had not grown over this time span but rather because the valve looked "chunky" with some deposits.  That was in late April and, after some hemming and hawing around, I decided to go ahead and get it over with.  The stay at Shands was ultimately a positive experience although the heart did go into atrial fibrillation post-surgery, a common enough occurrence. The recovery period focused on allowing my sternum to fuse back together and for me to regain motion and strength in my upper body. In August I began to run a little on my own, but it wasn't until late October after my return to work that I was able to circuit my .7-mile home block...in December I ran a 5K race and, in February this year, ran Gainesville's local half-marathon.  Although I am taking daily medications chiefly from my cardiologist's concerns about potentially recurring a-fib, my life seems to going on fully normally without restriction.  I'm blessed and grateful, both for living in such a time and place to be able to undergo such complicated and delicate surgery and postoperative care and to have the means to pay for it...as well as the loving support of my family and friends, most especially Melissa.  So, I'm back to living each day one day at a time...let's see what the rest of today brings! 

Quote of the Week...from John Quincy Adams

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

                                                                     ---John Quincy Adams

This current season in my life, the summer of 2021, has been an intensive training session in the arts of patience and perseverance.  In late June I made the decision to go ahead with my thoracic surgeon's strong recommendation to get my defective heart valve replaced and my aortic aneurism repaired, a procedure requiring open heart surgery...complete with taking apart the sternum and fusing it back together afterwards.  As such, it has been for me a long, long rocky road of triumphs and setbacks as I make my slow recovery and strive to return to my previously active lifestyle.  I had to be patient and persevere with being in the hospital's intensive care unit following surgery a little longer than planned due to a complication and then on the general floor, also a lengthier stay.  During this time I've had to faithfully endure extended limits on my mobility and drug-induced negative effects on my bodily functions, which included during my entire hospital stay absolutely no appetite whatsoever.  Upon final discharge, I have been homebound and limited in what I can do, being on "sternal precautions", designed to limit my arms, lifting, and upper body motion to protect my refusing rib cage...it is set to end on September 9th, after which I can begin to recover that use of my body...again in a slow, methodical manner.  I've also had to patiently deal with a-fib, fluid retention in my chest and pain as the medical authorities responsible for my care carefully adjust my post-op medications and procedures.  Early on after the operation I felt discouraged and demoralized, but kept up with whatever requests that were made upon me in as positive a spirit as possible.  Now, six weeks after surgery, I have made a great deal of progress: while living and struggling through it all, minute by minute, day by day, it seemed to last forever, the more I look back on where I was I am increasingly astounded by how relatively brief a time I have spent in this state.  There's more recovery to come, but I am glad I kept the faith and plodded on through the most trying times.  But patience and perseverance remain the watchwords here, and as one of my favorite U.S. presidents, John Quincy Adams, has said, they will lead to the conquering of my difficulties and obstacles...                                                

Recovering at Home from Surgery

Just to keep this blog more or less continuous, I'm writing today's article.  It's been two weeks since I was discharged from the hospital following my aortic aneurism/valve replacement surgery and then two weeks in the hospital.  Melissa has been taking good care of me in just about every phase of my slow recovery.  And sometimes the patient himself doesn't see any improvement in his condition...but I've been told I'm doing much better: very encouraging. My physical therapist has been giving me different projects to work on and I have found them helpful.  On the second day after surgery, Shands hospital policy drastically limited to two named people those allowed to visit me...all because of the Delta variant resurgence of Covid-19.  And just as I was being discharged they formulated their policy of postponing elective surgery because of the shortage of ICU beds...had they scheduled my surgery for August as originally planned, I have no doubt that my operation would have been put off.  In any event, I managed to get it in under the wire and am very glad to be at home...

Recovering from Surgery

On Thursday, July 15th I underwent aortic valve replacement surgery as well as aortic aneurism repair, at the Shands Cardiovascular hospital.  It was necessary to perform open heart surgery that involved splitting my ribs, so recovery has necessarily been a more painful and drawn out process than had I only needed the valve replaced.  After some post-operatic concerns I was finally released this past Saturday and am now at home.  In case you're wondering how I wrote daily blog articles through all this, I didn't, having written about three weeks of articles in advance.  I was first diagnosed with the aneurism and bicuspid valve, the latter a defect that I've unknowingly had my whole life, in early 2012 and had been getting annual examinations as to the aneurism's size and the valve's appearance.  My thoracic surgeon, who I've had through this whole process, this past April decided it was time for the operation, and after some initial hesitancy I agreed.  He had given me his assent to engage in physical activity (such as running) that did not involve lifting heavy weights...while being careful to monitor my reactions.  After I've fully recovered I want to return to running, but for now my goal is to gradually get better while keeping my lungs cleared...    

Quote of the Week...from Robert Frost

The best way out is always through.                                ---Robert Frost

The renowned American poet Robert Frost is probably best know for the line "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference" from his poem The Road Not Taken.  With the above quote he emphasizes the need for people to face up to the challenges and problems in their lives and not, I believe, to seek confrontation or trouble.  Everybody has problems, and each of us should recognize our own individual ordeals and shortcomings and deal with them...this requires a bit of courage, though, as well as a recognition that we sometimes cannot surmount our troubles on our own but need to rely on the community around us, starting with our loved ones.  I have entered such a season in my own life when I need to deal with substantive medical issues, and for me the best way out is through some pretty extensive surgery, which is scheduled to take place next week.  But I am looking forward to getting on the other side of all this and resuming my regular life and routines while planning for great things in the future.  In the meantime I wrote out some blog articles in advance, which will be appearing here daily while I'm in the hospital...