MARCH 18, 2010

Since my last post I have regained my sleep and have been able to begin to walk a couple of miles a day. There is some slow progress in the right direction. Here is a note I wrote about where I am at at this time.

After three grueling months of misery and recovery a glimmer of hope with the Ejection Fraction up between 20-25% compared to 10% at the time of the mitral valve repair and maze ablation 7 hour surgery on December 8 2009.

In May 2008 after the stem cell therapy my heart function had gone up to a 30-35% Ejection Fraction and then after a 1 1/2 yrs it started to go down again because of the hard work the heart had to put up with with the severe mitral valve regurgitation.

Now after this past Dec. '09 surgery the leak is fixed and the heart doesn't have to work so hard and it has a chance to recover some. It could go up to 35% at least that is the hope. But for the long run my doctor said "it is in God's hands now."

Before this surgery I was in a catch 22. I needed the stem cells to get the EF and heart function better and it did and then it made it possible for me to have the mitral heart valve repair. Otherwise they would "not" have operated on my weak heart. Now, if I can recover to a 35% and stay their for a while it could buy me time to either have more stem cell therapy someday or some other drug which could help the left ventricle function? Who know? The rest of the heart however, is fine. At this time I don't know the size of the left ventricle, I meant to ask him that and forgot. I was telling him of a friend who is 38 years old and he had a heart pump assist device which really helped him even recover some of his own heart function. It was called a LVAD. A left ventricle assist device. Or they have the heart-mate II now as well. If you are not a candidate for a heart transplant you can have one of these devices put in and one lady I heard of has had hers for 13 years. Anyway, that is still a long way off and I have another 9 months for recovery and we will see what the EF looks like. I will have another echo in July 21st. I think that since I just now started to feel better and am able to walk a couple of miles a days that I will see more improvement by July.

It is one day at a time for now. It is interesting I still feel sore in the heart and have a little tingling numbness in my left pinkie finger. I am weaker right now more than a year ago, but I was at my peak with the stem cells and their good they were going to do, but as I said that hard work the heart had to do with almost all the blood it pumped out fell back in again worked against itself and caused weakness and decline in the elasticity of the left ventricle.

So that is where I am at and how I am doing. Going to try to continue to live life to the fullest while trying to be wise with diet, exercise, and supplements to help the heart and not put a strain on it. Then I try to do a meditation of light and healing to the heart as well. It is true, it is all in God's hands and that is a good place to be.

Yesterday was a big day. It was long trip to Ft. Pierce to see the doctor, have an Echo, and visit the hospital where I had the surgery and where I use to work and see an old good friend at his house. I brought 3 big fruit trays of fresh fruit to all the nurses on the three floors I was on and gave each of them a thank you note for their wonderful care. They were all grateful to see me and told me over and over again how great I looked after such a long and difficult surgery. That was encouraging.
Take care everyone. Sincerely, Mike