Happy Thanksgiving 2011!!!!

Many Thanks!

Health - What a difference one year makes!

Family - Time together, sons together (with their women)

Food - Turkey & all the rest!!

Football - Traditions - and keeping sports in the proper perspective!

Country - USA still #1

And Faith - we are constantly blessed!

How about some great Thanksgiving websites!

Thanksgiving History - http://www.thanksgivinghistory.net/

Thanksgiving - http://www.vickiblackwell.com/thanks.html

Thanksgiving Sites - http://www.virtualquincy.com/quincy/holiday/thanks.html


The First Thanksgiving - http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/

Great Thanksgiving Videos

Fast Turkey
The First Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Knock Knock Joke
You Can't Gobble Me!

Thanksgiving Eve 2011

What a difference a year makes!  My focus this week has been looking back on last year.  Last year my focus was the "Thanks" in Thanksgiving!  And I focused on the "3 F's in My Life!"

Family - I am blessed why an incredible family!  And a new daughter-in-law Erliza!  And a new daughter-in-law Kristen October 2012!

Friends - from old friends to new friends, old neighbors to new neighbors, and co workers old & new!  I had many people thinking of me & praying for me!

Faith - Do not know how people survive life without faith!  My church visiting and praying for me!  My Pastor Dave a great spiritual leader & incredible friend!  A family strong in the faith (and a wife that has always been a wife that has strengthen my faith!  And a story of a God that loves me in sickness & in health!

And their is a fourth F for Thanksgiving!  Football!  Along with great food & family there is Thanksgiving Football!  What does Thursday look like:

In the NFL:
12:30 Packer vs. Lions GO PACKERS!
4:15 Miami vs. Dallas
8:20  49er's vs. Ravens

In college football:
8:00  Texas vs. Texas A&M

Open Heart Surgery - The Mental Thing! Part IV

One year ago TODAY I started this blog!  This has been a great therapy for the mental thing!  You could go old school & keep a journal, but the blog, online, was shared by many!  Here are the one year stats!

One Year - 12,921 Page Views!!!!!!!!!!

The Blog tracks views: today - yesterday - month - all time!  So, people viewing my blog over 12,000!!!

And where did the people viewing the blog come from??

The Philippines!  My daughter-in-law!  Canada, Russia, United Kingdom, Australia, .....  People search for answers and my blog came up for many reasons, Open Heart Surgery Recovery, PVC's & Exercise, Open Heart Surgery Incisions, and my other topics that I may have discussed during my recovery!

And how about some stats for Nerds!!

Top 3 browsers - Explorer, Firefox & Safari.  Top 3 Operating System - Windows, Macintosh, Android.
Great stats!

Search Key Words?

The blog title - My Heart Under Repair was bib, and topics such as PVC's, exercise, running, were also ways that people found my blog!!

Enough stats,now thanks!  Thanks for all of you that followed the blog and were keeping me in your thoughts & prayers!!!

Open Heart Surgery - The Mental Thing! Part III

One year ago I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that I was going to have open heart surgery! What steps do I need to take to prepare for this big step!

1 - Accepting & dealing with your medical problem!
2 - Understanding what is happening - RESEARCH!
3 - Finding the information I need & understanding it!

This is a great website & book pertaining to this subject!

Preparing for Open Heart Surgery

This book & site have some great advice.  Some of the subjects discussed?

1 - Open Heart Surgery Emotions
2 - Pre Open Heart Surgery Diet
3 - Pre Open Heart Surgery Exercise
4 - What do I do before Open Heart Surgery
5 - What to expect after Open Heart Surgery - first 4-5 days, after 6 weeks, ...

Open Heart Surgery - The Mental Thing! Part II

This week I started looking back on one year ago.  This was the week that reality set in and I found out I needed open heart surgery!  My first hurdle was the MENTAL THING!  OPEN HEART SURGERY!

Yesterday my first tip was:

1 - Accepting & dealing with your medical problem!

The fact was I needed open heart surgery.  I could not talk anyone out of it, I could not hide it anymore, I could not take a magic pill and make it go away!  So - Accept it & Deal with it!

Now what?  Get mentally ready to be prepared for what was to come.  Because I wanted on of the best doctors in my area - Dr. Burlingame, I need to wait!  So, it was November 19th and the operation was set for December 13th!  That is 24 DAYS!!!!!!

First, I was not allowed to do much of anything!  NO exercise, no work, nothing stupid!

Second, I prepared by talking to my future "zipper club" buddies! - Bill, Terry, Terry, & others.  What was I in for & how did they do it!

Third, plan for the future.  What would I be like after surgery - Day 1, Day 2, etc.

24 days was plenty of time to plan! - Maybe too much time!!