Two Years after Heart Surgery

So we have come to the end of another year. It was two years ago at this time during the holidays that I had my heart surgery. I went into the hospital on December the 22nd and came out just before before New Years Day. That Christmas is a blur and  most of the following year as well.

I was so family centered and focused on becoming well that the rest of the world barely registered to me.

 It was a struggle, to be honest, just getting back on my feet. A lasting effect seems to be a change in my attitude. I am much more empathetic than I ever was to other people's feelings and struggles. My ambition has changed from struggling to excel in the business world to just trying to find serenity and peace in my daily life. This change brings with it its own problems and struggles but the rewards are much more fundamentally satisfying.

 All seems well with me health-wise. I had a fight getting my cholesterol under control.  But after my regular medical exam last month -for the first time since the coronary Artery Bypass operation- my medication levels were not increased. So the combination of activity, diet and meds seems to finally be doing the trick.

I feel physically fit and very able, just not quite as strong as I remember myself being. That could be because I was never as mighty as I thought or that I'm a little older or most likely, I simply have not been keeping fit for so many years while the disease crept up on me that it will take another few years to get back the muscle mass that slowly degenerated. Who knows? I'll just keep plugging away and expect to feel better each day until something makes me change my mind.

So my New Years' wish for all of you, whether just beginning the journey, enduring heart surgery or recovering, is that this year is better than the one before. Sometimes it doesn't take much to effect positive changes, sometimes it takes more than we think we can endure. In my experience more often than not, it just takes the positivism to make the effort and  the currents of life will start to take you in the direction you need to go.