Life and Everything about it

As many of you already know, on May 27th, I underwent my sixth open-heart surgery in Halifax. Since birth, I have had a problem with aortic coarctation. This time, I had an aortic aneurysm.

One of the things that made my experience different and even more difficult is that I now have children. There is always a certain fear of leaving them, and this fear was very emotional for me. When I talked to the anesthesiologist the day before my surgery, my heart was in my throat.

The surgery went fairly well, in terms of what my surgeon wanted to achieve as results. However, it took longer than expected, two or three hours longer in the operating room. At one point during the surgery, my heart rate dropped to 30 (kind of heart failure) and I lost proper kidney function (kidney failure). This was very taxing on my body. My creatinine levels, which should be between 80 and 100, were above 600. My body was poisoned. I was seeing all sorts of things (illusions), hearing voices at 100 mph, talking in my dreams, feeling really bad! They kept me in intensive care for 3 or 4 more days because of these problems.

Eventually, they stabilized my heart rate with a temporary pacemaker. The creatinine levels took time to go down (Example: day 2: 580; day 3: 540, etc.). I had incredible difficulty, worse than all my other surgeries. Eventually, they managed to stabilize me. My body continues to detoxify; slowly but surely, things began to clear up, and I regained my senses. It’s amazing how much energy and resilience it took for me to overcome these problems and come out on top. After a few days, they disconnected the pacemaker and my heart was beating regularly; the kidney indicator numbers dropped to 200. I was stable enough to move to the step-down unit. I came home on Wednesday, June 5th.

I still expect it to take a good two to three weeks to get back to 80% of my strength; I have a lot of fatigue. I sleep a lot. So I’m taking the time I need to rest, stabilize my situation, and recover. It was a major surgery, it was a big challenge for me this time; the older we get, the more difficult it becomes, because we have less physical strength to get through things like this.

I am still very physically strong and I am still a very resilient person; so for me, from the moment I woke up, it was a battle to get through it and find the path to happiness and health. I saw my family doctor today, for the first time since my surgery. He ordered blood tests, checked my wounds, and we chatted a bit about my recent health challenge.

I keep a good spirit. I keep the strength and I keep smiling. I am really really proud to have the people around me who have helped me so far; my loved ones, my family, my mother, my children, Christa and also a big big thank you to Paryse who has been a big help to me.

This new chapter of my life will be part of the book I am co-writing with my mother. It will tell the story of my heart challenges from my mom’s perspective and mine, as well as the death of my father due to heart issues.

I am happy to continue sharing my life story, my heart story, and all of this “with an open heart.” I love you. I wish you all happiness, sunshine, and if you are going through difficult times in your life, remember that every challenge can give us a reason to live and continue to build our resilience.

Be strong and take care of yourselves!

Marty