Decompressing

After finding out last Monday that I have a bicuspid valve and an aneurysm, I had a rather intense week coming to grips with that reality and what it will mean - complex surgery to replace not only a defective aortic valve, but also part or all of my ascending aorta and root. I'm afraid I made Dan upset with an information overload that I dumped on him and I'm sorry for that. He thinks that I'm obsessing about it all, but I have to be on top of the situation to the best of my ability. I owe that to myself and him.

As of Friday, I began to come off of the jittery, panicky, drive to find out as much as I could by doing on line research. I'm pretty much over it now. Even my blood pressure is looking better these last few days. Unfortunately, I caught a bad head cold over the weekend. I started to feel it Saturday morning. Last night it was tough to sleep with the cold symptoms. I did get a walk in yesterday afternoon, which made me feel better. Our house is right across the street from Fairmount Park, so we enjoy daily walks with our dog Bradley. I actually do two walks most days: 2 miles in the morning and two miles in the afternoon. I only feel symptoms on exertion - walking up hills, steps, etc. If I do heavy exertion, I feel it in my chest, so my surgeon considers this "symptomatic." I'll continue my walking though, because I'm determined to stay in the best shape I can.