Today marks One Year for the new aorta!

Yes, my new aorta is a year old today. They told me it could take up to a year to really be 100% and I can pretty much agree. In many ways I’m better than I was a year ago. I was only just learning to manage my diabetes when I learned I had an aneurysm on the aorta and would need surgery.

And then in the fall I discovered I was coming after at the seams, with a hernia (actually two hernias) erupting right along the incision scar from the aorta surgery. So I had another surgery to repair that on Nov. 11.

So, yeah — it’s been an interesting year. But I’m better now, and I’ve begun doing modified push-ups (MPUs) to help strengthen my core and upper body. Full-plank push-ups are astonishingly difficult, but yesterday I managed to pump out 30 MPUs across 3 sets of 10 at a time. The last set of the day was a struggle but I did it. My goal is to be able to do 50 MPUs a day, and then I’ll start including some full-plank push-ups into the mix.

I still haven’t walked all the way to Kroger yet, but I am happy with doing my leg and hip exercises and some dancing. And I am able to dye a full load of yarns in a day. In the summer I was struggling to do even that — I could do 3 or 4 and then have to sit and rest, with the physical labor involved in both the dyeing as well as the reskeining and photographing steps.

In most ways I am nearly 100%, like the doctor predicted, even considering the set back of the hernia surgery. The puncture wounds for the robotic laparoscopy are pretty much clearing up, but still visible. Not worth an update picture, plus the fact it is just now 3:00 and I’m not in the mood for taking a decent picture just now. Maybe over the weekend. 🙂

Yesterday we inaugurated President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump is gone to Florida, and I hope he stays out of sight forever, but he’ll likely make a spectacle of himself thanks to all the potential legal troubles he now faces. I’m not going to get into all that right now, since our national political scene is will enough known already.

I’m going to finish my wee-hours coffee and go back to bed shortly. Only one or twice in recent months have I actually managed to sleep more than a few hours at a time at night, supplemented by naps during the day. But since I was awake I wanted to be sure I marked the first anniversary of my Big Surgery. 🙂