Bypass Heart Surgery: Journey back to Normal

Hello everyone, and I hope all is well!

A couple of years ago, I woke up and couldn’t breathe. I had been experiencing some swelling in my feet and hands, along with some chest pain and shortness of breath. When I finally caught my breath I called 911 immediately.

I would end up spending a month and a half in the hospital, two weeks in critical condition, and about thirty minutes away from being put on a ventilator. The bottom line was I had congestive heart failure and it was serious. My ejection fraction, a fancy way to say how well your heart is pumping, was 20%, which puts me in the most severe category of heart failure. While I am sure there was more than one factor, doctors think that chest radiation and chemotherapy are the main reasons from when I was younger and had cancer.

I have had to go back to the hospital more than once through this journey. Actually, it’s where I am at right now. This time, they decided to do a couple of procedures just to see if there was any blockage in my arteries. Well, it turns out there are massive blockages, with two coronary arteries completely blocked, only the main one is not, only partially blocked. The result is that I will require open-heart triple bypass surgery.

As you can imagine, all of this costs a lot. I have done okay the last couple of years with the expenses of heart failure, but with the diagnosis of coronary artery disease, surgery, and all that’s going to go with it afterward, it’s reaching a serious point financially.

I haven’t had the chance to see some of you in a while, but as I was looking through all the names, it certainly brought back a lot of good times and memories. If anything, please pray for me. Pray that the surgery will go well and I will eventually regain significant heart function moving forward. I would greatly appreciate it. I know God is in control of the situation. Thank you so much and God bless!