Rise and shine

Rise and shine
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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

I Heart Life


I thought it would be fun to have a theme for my surgery, so I decided on "I Heart Life". To help make my idea possible, my friends at Hit and Run http://www.thehitandrun.com/ helped create a logo for me and created a t-shirt screen for me. Thanks to Brandy, Toks, Alastair, Erick and Emmanuel!!
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8 comments:

  1. elly eOctober 13, 2010 at 1:35 PM

    so where can we pick up one of these shirts?

    ReplyDelete
  2. joOctober 13, 2010 at 5:49 PM

    I heart you:) Great idea to do a blog...i will be checking all the time! I love you and praying for you! oh and i can't wait to see you soon!!! i want a shirt too!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. HESOctober 14, 2010 at 9:58 AM

    Yes! I want a shirt to wear in support of you, friend! Love the idea!

    ReplyDelete
  4. My other car is a hearseOctober 14, 2010 at 10:50 AM

    CREW RUNS DEEP!
    LOVE,
    THE HIT+RUN CREW

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jack SahrmannOctober 14, 2010 at 5:23 PM

    You're in great hands at MOBap. My little brother, who is a big time runner, had the valve repair done 3 years ago and now runs faster and father than ever before. My valves are fine and I can hardly climb 2 flights of stairs. LOL I think.

    ReplyDelete
  6. MeganOctober 14, 2010 at 7:30 PM

    Love the blog, Nelson! I'll be thinking about you and I'm sure you'll be back to your normal self in no time! Are you selling the shirts?!?!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousOctober 17, 2010 at 2:01 PM

    Kristin, Dear. You will be in our prayers for as long as it takes to get you through surgery and recovery.

    Larry, Cheryl, Brady, and Jenna; We wull be waiting (with you) in prayer!

    "The Angel of the Lord encampeth round and about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." Psalm 34:7

    Love, Dick and Trish

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousOctober 20, 2010 at 7:42 PM

    Kristin, I was so glad to hear that the surgery was successful and that you are starting your recovery. Justin sent me a picture, and it was a relief to see you smile. We've been praying for you, and miss you. Love Laura and Larry

    ReplyDelete

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The basics of my surgery:


This August, I was at a check up and my doctor heard a heart murmur and told me to go see a Cardiologist. Over the last 4 weeks, I have been doing multiple procedures to find out exactly what was wrong with my heart and how it could be fixed. After a few procedures, I met with a surgeon in Dallas and it was recommended that I have open heart surgery. I decided that if i needed this procedure, I would rather be in St. Louis with my family to have it done.

Two weeks ago I went for a second opinion in St. Louis. All the doctors that I have met with have confirmed that I need to move forward with open heart surgery. There are no other less-invasive options for the type of surgery I have to do. I will have the surgery done in St. Louis at Missouri Baptist Hospital on October 18th.

The doctor will be performing 2 procedures during the surgery to fix two problems. I technically have an Ascending Aortic Aneurism, which as led to an enlarged aorta. My aorta is 5.1 centimeters, which is double the size of the average aorta. To fix the aorta they will replace the enlarged part with a dacron polyester tube. This will stay in my heart for the rest of my life. Over time the tissue will grow over the new aorta. The second part of the procedure is to fix my valves. My valves are what cause the heart murmur and essentially the cause of the enlarged aorta. Until they open up my heart, they can't determine exactly how they will fix the valves. The first option is to surgically fix them using my current tissue. If that is not an option, they will replace the valves with an animal valve. The surgery will take approximiately 4 hours, then I'll be in recovery at the hospital for about 5 days before I am able to go home and rest for about 6 weeks.

To answer a few questions:
Did I know about this? No, I did not know until a little over a month ago that anything was wrong. I knew when I was young that I had a heart murmur, but over the years Cardiologists have told me nothing was wrong.
Do I feel okay? Yes, I still feel like my normal self. There were no indications that I had anything wrong, other than the doctor first hearing my murmur.
Will I be able to resume normal activity post surgery? Yes, after a few weeks of recovery I should be able to resume my normal activities. It may just take a while to feel comfortable playing sports for a while.

Thanks for everyone for your thoughts and prayers. It means a lot to my family to have so many people supporting us, we can't thank you enough!

If anyone is around St. Louis, feel free to stop by! Visitors are welcome!