Featured Blog Posts (10)

November 10th 2011 . It was an average Thursday for me. Nothing out of the ordinary that morning until I decided to step outside for a quick cigarette (I know, it's a terrible habit! But this was one hell of a way to stop!!). As I went to light said cigarette I had a sharp pain in my lower back. For a moment, I thought that I'd pulled a muscle in my back, then, very quickly, I realised that it was something more serious as the pain spread rapidly up my spine to my chest. I have never…

Mon 7/11/11 - 4 days out from surgery - I told Cheryl I'd post something for her. Progressing well and everyone is amazed at how well she is doing - Doctor says much further than he expected.  Tubes out, spinal tap out, eating solids, walked first time Sunday evening and more today,  received some Occupational and Physical Therapy today. Cheryl is relieved  it doesn't hurt her ribs as much as initial surgery in 04.  Most trouble is feeling very tired and staying on top of pain. They are…

OKAY SO I    CA NT TYPE - BUGT i WANTED TO SAY I AM DOING OK - TIRED AND SORE, BUGT i MADE IT AND WILL WIRTED LATER.  MY SISTER WORTE A BIT BUT THEY REPLACED EVERYTHING INCLUDING MY ORIGINAL BECUASWE MY ANERUYSM WAS MUSH ACCORDINJG TO THE SURge0n;\

willcontact soon

Cher

Firstly I want to say how great I feel having found some fellow survivors of this life changing condition.

Here is my story. 

I am an artist 59 years old living in Spain with my partner Jean I´ve been with for 33 years. We have an enormous garden and I was not frightened of doing jobs on the roof, so not a wimp. We had visitors, my step son Andy, his wife and baby and it was 14th May 2010.  I cooked the breakfast for us as normal and went to my room to change and suddenly felt…

Cheryl is finally out of surgery (7:30 a.m.- @ 4:35 pm) and is heading up to ICU soon.  The doctors said they felt the surgery went well and that the organs needing reattachment seemed to be okay.  They had to repair more than they had suspected.  Doctors feel she may wake later tonight, at which point they will be able to better assess any impact on her spinal cord. 

Thanks again for your positive thoughts and wishes her way!

Carmen, her sister

With my upcoming surgery on Thursday, I'm hoping to have as much "support" as possible and I appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers, and wishes for me and I thank you dearly for them.

My sister requested a healing energy affirmation/prayer for me and if you are willing, could you please just read the words - Wednesday/Thursday as I could use all the positive energy I can get to get through the pre-surgery anxiety/sadness/fears and then through the actual surgery and on to the…

Hi everyone,Just thought I would update you all on my progress which seems to be good.I flew to Portugal for a weeks holiday last week and had a great time. I hardly thought about the AD and what had happened as I was too busy people watching. No one seemed to take any notice of my scar which I was concerned about but as I watched behind my sunglasses I realised quite quickly that it was not the case at all. I was very lucky with my holiday insurance as my husband has a group policy which we…

I get really nervous before seeing doctors, so haven't really been looking forward to my latest appointment with the cardiologist. But the news is good.

My blood test results are fine, and I don't have to have one done for my next check-up - the anemia has gone, and my cholesterol is fine. My ECG is "perfect" and my blood pressure is "estupendo", which is Spanish for "fantastic". 

However, as the ultrasound showed, there's still the problem of moderate regurgitation from the…

After my discouraging experience with the new doctor many things have happened: my son 27 year old was in bad motorcycle accident in Chicago on June 4th. Therefore things have been crazy for the last three weeks. He had several broken bones, a puncture lung, lacerated splint and liver. After several days of internal bleeding, he finally left the hospital on Tuesday, June 21st. He was safe from the neck up because he was wearing a helmet TG. 

I was finally able to see the…

So I had my 6m ECHO today and doc says nothing has changed since my last echo. My enlarged aortic root/aneurysm is holding steady at 5.1 and my leak is still considered moderate. Even better news no more CT scans for me, doc feels due to my age that having an ECHO(now once a year) instead of being exposed to radiation once a year is good enough. He does say if the ECHO ever shows change or I start to develop any symptoms then of course a CT scan will be necessary.

Now let's…