Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Russia was cancelled; Heart surgery instead

Well, about 3 weeks before the trip to Russia was supposed to begin, I had my biennial (every 2 years?) treadmill stress test. This time it was positive so I had a coronary angiogram which showed some partially blocked arteries. (There is a strong family history of this on my father's side). So I had heart surgery to bypass these blockages on May 8. This is a very common procedure these days but still a fairly big deal since they saw thru your sternum and stop the heart and put you on the heart-lung machine for an hour. It went rather smoothly except for a common complication of irregular heart beats the first few days. I have recovered well and am now exercising at a level equal to that prior to the procedures without chest discomfort. I am planning to travel to Ohio this weekend to attend my Aunt Charlotte's 90th birthday party.

Next big trip is back to Hawaii in September, then maybe Brazil in October and then Vietnam/Thailand in Nov/Dec.
Plan to see the world while I am "young".