Welcome!
Open-heart surgery is a life altering event. Physically, we all know the extreme nature of open-heart surgery. However, what most people don't know about, and aren't prepared for, is the emotional aspect of open-heart surgery. This site has been created to be used as an informal platform for honest thought and discussion on the heart, particularly pertaining to heart disease and more specifically open-heart surgery. Post-operative depression and mental fatigue are often very real battles in the recovery process. In addition, everything you thought you knew about life goes out the window the second your eyes open. Unfortunately, this emotional aspect is rarely discussed. Patients, as well as the doctors, are understandably focused on recuperating physically, but often regaining emotional strength can be the tougher challenge in the end.
My desire is that this site will be a place to share and connect. Where we can listen and be heard, inspire and be encouraged, relate and be understood. Family and friends, try as they might, often do not really understand because they have not lived it. So lets talk about it! The positives and the negatives. Know that you are not alone in this battle. All we have in this life is the moment we're in. Nothing else is guaranteed. Every day spent alive after surgery is truly a blessing. I find comfort in knowing each day I spend on this earth, is a day I might not have had. So when times get hard, I remind myself how much I have overcome to be here. So I choose to live fully and make the most of it. I find so much peace in that and I hope you can too.
Heart disease remains #1 killer in the world and claims more lives than all forms of cancer combined.
“You go through your bitter faze, and you come out the other side going I just want to talk about this. The more personal and specific you can make it, the more people can relate to you. As personal as you think it is, there’s people going, I feel that."
- Robin Williams (After Open-Heart Surgery)
Life is precious and beautiful, but life can also be incredibly sad. Every 30 seconds someone kills themselves due to depression. 40 to 75 percent of heart surgery patients experience post-operative depression and mental fatigue, which may be evident immediately or can appear at anytime over the months following surgery. There is a lot that is not yet understood about the neurological effects of open-heart surgery. What is known, is that those are often very real battles waiting for you when you wake up from surgery. Going into battle prepared always gives the warrior a better chance for victory. It's when we are blindsided, that we are more likely to experience defeat.
Additionally, most will find that after going through open-heart surgery, everything you thought you knew about life changes. Facing your own mortality does a unique thing to the human spirit. Your perspective on life, viewpoints, priorities, outlook, etc. will be forever changed. It's like when you look thru a kaleidoscope. One small twist, and everything shifts. What you see now is similar to before; all the same pieces, shapes, and colors, but all rearranged and not the same pattern or image you saw before. And so it is with your life. As a survivor of open-heart surgery, you come to appreciate the little things in life and feel a deeper level of emotion, love and gratitude, but at the same time you mourn the loss of your former self. You are uncertain of what the future may look like. Now I know each person has a different experience and may not share the same feelings, but the idea is for those who do feel lost, out of touch, different, or detracted from reality to know that... YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
