Enterprise Selling and Marketing Blog - sellingpursuit.com

Originally I was not going to mention my open heart surgery on this blog. I have changed my mind due to the shear amount of people there are to update. I have had so much support from employees, clients, and friends, and have decided to use the blog as the venue to keep everyone updated. This will also help to limit the amount of time talking about my experience on conference calls, for which I will have more limited time to spend over the next few weeks. (Doctor’s orders are to give up 60+ hour work weeks for a while).

As many know, I was born with a congenital defect in my aortic valve that was surgically repaired when I was 6 years old. Since then I have had no problems. That being said, we always knew at some point a replacement was likely. Last march I ended up with a heart valve infection called endocarditis as a result of the abnormal valve I was born with. This is a very dangerous condition that can result in stroke and death. I was treated for several months but we were unable to stop brain lesions from continuing to reform. The decision was finally made to replace the aortic valve and a piece of the aortic root that had turned into a 5cm aneurysm. This is really an amazing surgery because beyond having to use a bypass machine, aortic root replacement requires complete circulatory arrest (0 Blood Flowing) which can be maintained for up to 30 minutes with your body at hypothermia temp.

On December 26th I went in at 7:30 in the morning for an as expected 7 hour surgery. While in surgery the doctors found a difficult to spot tiny hole between the inner chambers of my heart. This was easily stitched up preventing what would have certainly been a stroke at some point. I was off the ventilator shortly after and was wide awake that night. Suffice it to say, the first 2 days were the worst. The night following surgery, I ended up with excessive air in my abdomen which made breathing even more difficult when you stack on the now broken sternum.

On January 01, 2008 I was released home. Happy New Year by the way! It was great to be at home, although this introduced new challenges. For instance, I have never considered hospital beds to be comfortable, but figuring out the most comfortable way to sleep in my own FLAT bed was certainly a challenge the first night home. I am restricted from carrying anything over 10 pounds (it hurts) so basically I don’t do anything but eat, sleep, breath, and bathroom over the next several days. The pain is manageable, (thanks to magic pills) as long as I don’t need to cough or God Forbid, sneeze.

As of today, January, 4th I feel amazingly well considering what I have been put through. I plan on returning to work at a mostly full time level next week. I wanted to say thank you to everyone who supported and prayed for me and my family through this difficult time. I am looking forward to a great and prosperous 2008 and I am wishing the same for all of you!