Surviving Three Open Heart Surgeries: A Journey Through Tamponade, Aortic Dissection, and Recovery
"I grabbed the door handle, and it felt like somebody just cut up my chest with a dull butter knife. And 15 seconds later I was lying face down on the kitchen floor dead from cardiac tamponade at that point in time."
Hey Heart Buddies. Whew. Today's episode with Jon Toivonen whose heart story literally stopped—and restarted—multiple times is one to help you take stock of your own life. Jon recounts his first shocking symptoms, the surreal “butter knife” sensation of an aortic dissection, and how fate, luck, and love shaped his survival. While Jon’s physical heart has been patched together, the emotional journey is far from straightforward. Jon shares what comes after the surgeries: the mental battles, the power of community, and why an electric recliner might just be life changing. He also opens up about navigating the aftermath—ICU hallucinations, family impact, and the ever-present possibility of another health crisis.
You can find Jon here.
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**I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Be sure to check in with your care team about all the next right steps for you and your heart.**
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Email: Boots@theheartchamberpodcast.com
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to Open Heart Surgery
Speaker:with Boots. I am your host, Boots Knighton. And thank
Speaker:you so much for spending a little slice of your day
Speaker:with me and my guest today. And I want you
Speaker:to know that I don't take it lightly that you choose this
Speaker:podcast, that you likely find this podcast helpful
Speaker:and I hope that you find something, some hope from listening to
Speaker:these stories. I put my own heart and soul
Speaker:pun totally intended into choosing my guests
Speaker:and I want to make sure that every minute you spend with
Speaker:me is worth your time. So please be sure to send me
Speaker:some feedback.
Speaker:Bootsheheartchamberpodcast.com
Speaker:yes, that was the former name of the podcast and I have not switched my
Speaker:email over, but I do love hearing from my listeners. It might take
Speaker:me a second to get back to you, but every bit of feedback, positive
Speaker:or constructive, is so welcomed.
Speaker:And I want to also give a special shout out to
Speaker:some Patreon supporters. I have
Speaker:Amy to thank and Lucinda,
Speaker:Robin, John, Kim,
Speaker:Bill, Sarah, Kristen,
Speaker:Katie, Rose, Diana. I want to say thank
Speaker:you to those who are helping me me keep this
Speaker:podcast afloat financially. I sure do
Speaker:appreciate it. And if you are looking to support
Speaker:this podcast, you can go in the show Notes to Patreon
Speaker:and if you become a paid supporter of this podcast,
Speaker:you can join in on the zoom meetups that happen on the
Speaker:first Tuesday of every month. And it really is an
Speaker:amazing discussion of us coming together over our hearts.
Speaker:So thank you for considering. Lastly, if you
Speaker:haven't, be sure to sign up for my newsletter. You can see that in the
Speaker:show Notes as well. And I send out a newsletter
Speaker:about every Tuesday, Wednesday depending on how I'm
Speaker:feeling, to tell you about the latest episodes and to give
Speaker:you a little bit of a window into my heart journey as well, because
Speaker:it is not over for me. But let's get to
Speaker:today's guest. I am welcoming John
Speaker:Toivonen from.
Speaker:Oh gosh, Warba. You told me how to spell it, John.
Speaker:Warba, Minnesota. And Warba is
Speaker:apparently the center of the world. John, thank you
Speaker:for joining us. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm very
Speaker:honored to be on your program, very honored to be here and with
Speaker:your listeners and hopefully they can get something out of my story.
Speaker:Of course they will. And the 50,000 foot view
Speaker:of you, John, is you're lucky. I want to
Speaker:rub you for good luck. A lot of people do. Yes,
Speaker:because you have been through quite a
Speaker:challenging last five years, particularly the
Speaker:last two. And you have had to
Speaker:date three open heart surgeries and what's
Speaker:miraculous is that you continue to live
Speaker:a life wide open, full of love,
Speaker:and you are able to work, you are able to
Speaker:continue to. I don't know if the word
Speaker:thrive is how you would describe it, but you're here and
Speaker:you're able to clearly tell your story. And I just want to say
Speaker:all that for the listeners because at times when we listen
Speaker:to your story, it's going to be like, oh my gosh, how is this guy
Speaker:doing it? And you're doing it. Exactly. And
Speaker:that's kind of the best way to describe it is I just do it.
Speaker:I just trust in, trust in the, in the people around me
Speaker:that they're telling me the right things and I listen to my body
Speaker:and that's how I make it through every day. Bravo. Let's get to
Speaker:it. So 2019, how old were you
Speaker:then? I was 41 years
Speaker:old. Okay. Okay, so let's,
Speaker:let's just dive in and you're going to give us the
Speaker:30,000 foot view, let's say, of your story. And then along the way
Speaker:I'm going to interject with a few questions. Absolutely. We're
Speaker:41 years old with you, 2019, and you
Speaker:start to feel really bad. I, yes, I
Speaker:had gone through the whole day without really
Speaker:any symptoms. The only thing I had mentioned in the morning was that I couldn't
Speaker:clear my throat. That was the only thing that stood out in my wife's
Speaker:mind. I coached football. I went to our restaurant
Speaker:that we own to pick up the kids, ate dinner, had
Speaker:a beer, got in the truck, getting ready to leave, got the
Speaker:kids in there. And I said, you know what, I'm gonna go back inside to
Speaker:say goodbye to my wife. I grabbed the door handle and it felt like somebody
Speaker:just cut up my chest with a dull butter knife. And 15
Speaker:seconds later I was laying face down on the kitchen floor dead
Speaker:from cardiac toponade at that point in time. So I had an air of
Speaker:dissection and the timing with the ambulance where
Speaker:the hospital was. The people that were at the hospital
Speaker:that helped me and the surgeons that helped me in
Speaker:Duluth once I got life flighted there, saved my life and
Speaker:it, it was amazing. So I went through 11 plus hour
Speaker:surgery, repaired aortic ascending aorta and
Speaker:also a mechanical valve as well. I had a St. Jude's
Speaker:valve and that was first installed
Speaker:and Woke up about
Speaker:24 hours after the surgery and the ICU still
Speaker:alive. And it was pretty amazing to hear what had
Speaker:happened to me after I had basically left
Speaker:the hospital in Grand Rapids. So I
Speaker:want to go back to the butter knife
Speaker:sensation. So, like, you just felt, like, up the center of your
Speaker:chest, right? Yeah, from. Right. Like, top of the stomach all
Speaker:the way up. And it was just weird. And I'm like. I thought it was
Speaker:heartburn at first, and I started to feel like I was
Speaker:gonna fall over. And so I'm walking into the kitchen,
Speaker:and like I said, I just went face down on the
Speaker:floor. And it's a miracle you got back out of the car and you weren't
Speaker:trying to drive. Well, that's. That's the thing is that. And my kids were pretty.
Speaker:My young kids were pretty young at the time. Had I just hopped in the
Speaker:truck, it would have happened right there. I would have never gotten out of the
Speaker:truck. And I was behind the restaurant where nobody really goes. That's
Speaker:where I parked. And so I'm lucky. I'm lucky that I
Speaker:didn't close the door, because that door automatically locks. I left it open. You know,
Speaker:there's so many things that factored into the timing with it that I'm still
Speaker:here. Wow. You are not the first guest I've had
Speaker:on where there's all these little, tiny miracles
Speaker:along the way. I mean, it. It is. I just have the
Speaker:chills thinking about that. For you and your kids and your wife.
Speaker:And tell us real fast about tamponade.
Speaker:So basically, the way it was explained to me, because that's what was the
Speaker:official diagnosis. I still have the paperwork from when I was
Speaker:released from the emergency room. I guess essentially, it's just that
Speaker:periocardio sac around your heart fills with blood or liquid or whatever,
Speaker:and it just stops your heart. It constricts your heart. Okay. And so they actually
Speaker:put in a drain to drain that
Speaker:at the emergency room, and then also had
Speaker:blood going into me. So they would drain it, and then they
Speaker:transfused it at the same time. So that's the only reason why I stayed alive.
Speaker:Okay, Right. Because you had dissected. And so then
Speaker:the blood was. Okay. Wow, what a dumpster fire. But
Speaker:11 hours later. So you had your
Speaker:aortic root replaced. Right. Help me remember. Your
Speaker:aortic root. Your. The dissection repaired, and
Speaker:then the aortic valve. Correct. And then I also had a
Speaker:bypass. Oh, the bypass. An artery that
Speaker:stopped working. And so the right side of my heart
Speaker:was essentially dying. So they had to do
Speaker:that at that time as well. And so that's where the
Speaker:first part of the journey starts, essentially. Yeah, exactly. And I
Speaker:think anybody that is probably in listeners and maybe even yourself can
Speaker:agree that usually after the surgery, it's just
Speaker:complications from there on out, experiencing because of the
Speaker:trauma, because of what happened, and because of the surgery, because it's such
Speaker:a big ordeal. And so that's what happened to me
Speaker:essentially, into my second open heart surgery. Right. And now
Speaker:we're in Covid and we're just about. We
Speaker:were just about. We were. We were about.
Speaker:My second open heart surgery was February 7th of 2020,
Speaker:and the COVID shutdown happened March 13th.
Speaker:For everything that's like our restaurant shut down,
Speaker:you know, sports venues shut down, everything shut
Speaker:down. But into the second open heart surgery, that bypass that I
Speaker:talked about, I had been feeling not so good
Speaker:since January and finally went to see my
Speaker:cardiologist, and she's like, you don't look good. You need to go to
Speaker:Duluth. You're leaking. Something's going on. Well, they thought it was one
Speaker:thing. They thought it was my repair leaking. And they were just going to go
Speaker:in and put a stitch in and a simple procedure. And they
Speaker:decided to go through instead of go through the growing, which I'm glad they
Speaker:didn't. And they went through open heart, and
Speaker:they got in there and found that that's not what was
Speaker:happening. It was the artery that they used to
Speaker:bypass. The old artery had stopped working,
Speaker:shriveled up, and spit clots in my. Around
Speaker:my heart, and the old artery
Speaker:actually started working again. So
Speaker:miraculously, I survived the unsurvivable number
Speaker:two. And I'm just thinking,
Speaker:like, you know, I think of terms of a
Speaker:car, and you have all these different pipes taking, like, oil
Speaker:places and gas, and. And it's just like you were just
Speaker:sputtering along. And I'm just thinking of, like, oil clumps or something,
Speaker:just getting into the engine. Yeah. And you're just
Speaker:literally sputtering along. And the car is like.
Speaker:Right. But this is life threatening. I know. That's. I know. I. I
Speaker:picture something like that, too. Like, just. It's just like going like this. Yeah, it's.
Speaker:That's pretty funny. I like that. I totally picture that same way
Speaker:myself. I'm trying not to make light of it, but I'm also. My poor
Speaker:little brain, like, this is so messed up. And
Speaker:I. And again, thank God you went to
Speaker:Duluth. And I. Another side trip. I just want to take
Speaker:temporari. Really is. When you heard those words,
Speaker:how did you find the energy to be like, okay, here
Speaker:I go again, back to the ER like, it. Yeah, it was
Speaker:pretty tough I mean, I was. I was. I was batting a
Speaker:thousand going to the ER and getting sent to Duluth, there for a while.
Speaker:And so, like, they won't even. So now, you know, it's gotten to the point.
Speaker:It got to the point where my local hospital won't even deal with
Speaker:me. In fact, my cardiologist says, just come straight
Speaker:to Duluth. Just come here, because I don't want you to deal
Speaker:with them. I want you to just be here. Because I'm only about an hour
Speaker:away, and it's. St. Mary's Essentia is where I
Speaker:go. They just built a brand new, beautiful facility there in Duluth
Speaker:and great surgeons, great, great cardiologists. So.
Speaker:Yes. And making light of my story is what helps me get through, so
Speaker:I'm glad that you were able to share that with me. So. And by the
Speaker:way, my local cardiologist said I'm a zebra to her, so. I hear
Speaker:you. And, yeah, I have to go elsewhere now, too. And it's.
Speaker:It. I don't know about you, but I've had to grieve that and
Speaker:be like, oh, why can't I just be like a horse? You
Speaker:know, Like, I want to be a horse. I know. Like, yeah, yeah. If I'm
Speaker:going to stay in the hospital, why can't I just stay locally so people can
Speaker:come see me or whatever. Exactly. Because we need our community around us
Speaker:or. I know half the doctors, though. Half the doctors will come in and see
Speaker:me and say hi. You know, that doesn't happen. I got to go. It alerts
Speaker:now, so. And actually, it's. We've even bypassed that now, so.
Speaker:Yep. Before we lead into the third open heart surgery, part of my
Speaker:complications was they had put a probe in my
Speaker:arm to apparently measure your blood pressure while
Speaker:you're. Arterial. Blood pressure.
Speaker:Yep. And so when I got done with the second
Speaker:open heart surgery, because I had. They had to take me off Warfarin for a
Speaker:few days. I was doing Lovenox shots, which
Speaker:Lovenox is like, you know, heavy blood thinner. Yep. Well, it kept
Speaker:my blood so thin. Yeah. So I was putting something on
Speaker:a shelf one night, and all of a sudden I felt like my bicep just
Speaker:cramped. And after a couple hours of being
Speaker:in extreme pain, I finally go to the er. That was the first time
Speaker:they had the lights on for the ambulance to take me to Duluth because
Speaker:they were extremely worried that I was going to lose my arm. Had compartment syndrome
Speaker:in my arm, and the artery tore
Speaker:in my arm, so I can't get blood work on that arm
Speaker:anymore because it's a grafted artery. And I just don't want to deal with
Speaker:weird stuff happens to me. So. Oh yeah, I want to.
Speaker:I want to keep it safe. So that was, you know, a part of the
Speaker:journey too, that, you know, for five weeks I couldn't move my arm. And they
Speaker:were concerned that I wasn't going to have it anymore. They might have to amputate
Speaker:it. So fortunately came out of that just fine.
Speaker:So. But then moving on to the next part of my story, which would
Speaker:be the third open heart surgery, the beast, as I like to call
Speaker:it, I guess I started to come down with a sickness in
Speaker:April of 2023. And I thought it was
Speaker:the hold on. So you made it a couple of years. I made
Speaker:it a couple of years. I was, I was in a good spot. I was
Speaker:in a really good spot. I mean, my health was
Speaker:good. Everything was stable,
Speaker:no problems. And all of a sudden I come off a weekend and Monday
Speaker:I just, I got a fever and chills and I thought I had the flu.
Speaker:I even went to the doctor, which wasn't my doctor. I should have reached out
Speaker:to my cardiologist, but that person agreed too. You're like, yeah, I think you have
Speaker:the flu. Well, then finally, when I couldn't take it anymore, after about three to
Speaker:four, you know, four weeks, I went to the ER
Speaker:because I just was not feeling great. And based off the tests
Speaker:that they did, I went to see my cardiologist the next day and she's like,
Speaker:I can't believe they didn't send you to Duluth. You need to come here now.
Speaker:Like, you don't have a choice. Like, you have to come here. And
Speaker:so rushed over there. And that's when
Speaker:they found that I had an infection. And specifically
Speaker:the infection attacked my, I like to say
Speaker:fake parts for, for the story, but for my
Speaker:aortic sleeve that was replaced and my
Speaker:aortic valve, my mechanical valve. And I actually, I actually
Speaker:developed a 1cm abscess on the root of
Speaker:my. Of my valve as well. So it
Speaker:was non negotiable. Surgery was the only
Speaker:option. And my surgeon, who was really good,
Speaker:said, I can do it, but I think you should go to
Speaker:Abbott Northwestern down in Minneapolis. Is there
Speaker:a level one trauma and transplant
Speaker:place? And they also have ECMO there, the
Speaker:ECMO machine, which is what I had to be on. And for those out there
Speaker:that know ECMO is not really
Speaker:survivable, it's about 50% people come off
Speaker:of ECMO and I was on it for four days. So they had
Speaker:to go in and do what they call a redo. So they had to take
Speaker:out all those fake parts, and they put cadaver
Speaker:parts back in. The problem with the surgery and what made it 20
Speaker:plus hours was when they opened my chest, it looked like
Speaker:hamburger from all the scar tissue. In fact, my surgeon
Speaker:said that was the stickiest chest he's ever seen. I don't know
Speaker:necessarily what that means, but I'm assuming it was bad. At one
Speaker:point in time, they actually pulled my pulmonary artery, and he had to massage my
Speaker:heart to keep it going. Lots of different
Speaker:complications. That part took 11 hours. And then the surgery
Speaker:for the redo took another seven or eight. Actually, I
Speaker:think it was eight plus even. They had to scrub the inside of my heart,
Speaker:get all the infection out, put those cadaver parts in, and here
Speaker:we go. And then they left my chest open for four. For those
Speaker:four days, while I was on ecmo, they went back in a couple times and
Speaker:just tweaked a few things. And that surgery was on a Tuesday. And by
Speaker:Sunday evening, they woke me up, and I was in the
Speaker:icu, and I had bad dreams, and I had ICU delirium.
Speaker:And it was bad. It was very, very bad. I was in a very,
Speaker:very, very dark place during that time. You're like the third or
Speaker:fourth guest I've had on that have spoken specifically
Speaker:about the delirium. And it's almost as if
Speaker:that's more traumatic than the surgery itself. Yes.
Speaker:There's things that I still have not told my wife that happened
Speaker:to me during that time. The things I saw.
Speaker:Basically, like, in a nutshell, what made it so bad is that
Speaker:I saw about 12 people in my room, and all of them were waiting
Speaker:for me to die so they could harvest my organs. And it
Speaker:was awful. I was talking to them. I don't know who was.
Speaker:Who was real and who wasn't. It was bad. It was a very, very dark
Speaker:situation for me. Um, I had people that say, oh,
Speaker:yeah, this person saw, you know, kitties
Speaker:and rabbits, you know, bunnies running around. I'm like, well, that's not what I saw.
Speaker:Yeah, lucky them. I wish I would have saw that. Yeah. Yeah. And I
Speaker:still. I still, to this day, haven't dealt with it. I have a friend
Speaker:that's. I don't necessarily think I need a
Speaker:psychiatrist, but I have a friend that's a life coach that I really trust that
Speaker:I want to share that information with. And I'm ready. Okay.
Speaker:And I'M ready to tell my story about that too. So that's a whole nother
Speaker:story for a whole nother day. Because that, I mean
Speaker:that, that's going to take up probably an hour. Just me going through everything that
Speaker:I saw and it's, it's. That was
Speaker:probably the most traumatic part about it, about the whole experience. Well, and you didn't
Speaker:have any control, right? You're. You're stuck. I didn't you. And
Speaker:you can't, you can't escape it. You can't self soothe. You
Speaker:can't distract yourself. You can't turn on a TV on your. Like,
Speaker:there's like. Or go on a walk. There's like all these things that keep you
Speaker:prisoner to your mind is what I'm. What I'm hearing.
Speaker:Yep, you are. You were. I was a prisoner in my own mind,
Speaker:in my own room. Y. And it was awful. And I, and I hear
Speaker:actually now because I shared. My sister. My sister's friend
Speaker:was the basically manager of the fifth floor, which is the
Speaker:cardiac wing at Abbott Northwestern. She came and talked to me and I told her
Speaker:about my experience and I don't know if it's because I told her about that.
Speaker:But now to now today they have people that come in, like
Speaker:visitors or volunteers that'll come in to when people are
Speaker:experiencing that and sit with them and talk with them and play cribbage with
Speaker:them and get their mind off of it. Good. So I, I mean it's a
Speaker:good change. It's something because the nurses and doctors, they're like, ah,
Speaker:I'm not dealing with that. That's. It's ICU delirium. Get
Speaker:over it. You know, they see it all the time, you know, and a. No
Speaker:fault to them. They have to desensitize themselves from it. But yeah, it's, it's
Speaker:good. So that part of the experience was, was terrible.
Speaker:But, but I improved quick, I really did from being in the
Speaker:hospital. I mean I, I was. I couldn't walk for several days. They
Speaker:wouldn't let me. They wouldn't let me get out of bed by myself. I had
Speaker:to be hoisted up and put on a chair. And for
Speaker:anybody that's ever had that, that's a completely like devastating
Speaker:experience. You feel helpless that you
Speaker:can't even. I can't even stand up. So.
Speaker:So that was, that was a humbling experience. It really was that part of it
Speaker:because I just wanted to get up and go. I wanted to go outside. I'm
Speaker:like, can we go outside? It's Nice. There's a balcony out there. It was
Speaker:beautiful. You know, that time of year was May. You know, I'm. You know,
Speaker:it's. Spring is here. I want to get outside. And now they wouldn't let me,
Speaker:so they had shut my kidneys down during it. And so I was on a
Speaker:machine that would, you know, basically change, do what your kidneys
Speaker:do. And so they had to wake them up. So I did have dialysis
Speaker:twice and started working again. Kidneys are good.
Speaker:Kidneys are functioning good to this day. And then it was pretty quick after
Speaker:that that I got out of the hospital. So I had my surgery on a
Speaker:Tuesday, and I was
Speaker:out of the hospital the following
Speaker:Thursday. I think that's incredible, considering it was
Speaker:pretty quick. That's impressive. Yeah, it
Speaker:was. It was pretty quick that they got me out of there, and I wasn't
Speaker:ready. I can tell you that. I was not ready. I
Speaker:got home, and the most devastating thing when you've had
Speaker:one traumatic experience from a health perspective
Speaker:is when you have another. You now know what it takes
Speaker:to get back to where you were. And it's like, the
Speaker:best thing I can explain is it's like. It's like chasing a ball down
Speaker:a hill, and you just can never get close enough
Speaker:to grab that ball. That's what it felt like. It's like, I'm never gonna get
Speaker:there. Never gonna get that ball. That spun me into
Speaker:a deep kind of thought, like, man, I just. This is
Speaker:gonna be terrible. And it was. You know, I'm not gonna sugarcoat things.
Speaker:It was. It was. It was not a good time. And,
Speaker:you know, there's. That was touch and go for months. In fact, my color didn't
Speaker:even return until probably five, six months later. People
Speaker:that had saw me, like, the week before had said, oh, my gosh,
Speaker:your color is back. You look so much better. So it was pretty
Speaker:grim there for a while. I couldn't even do cardiac rehab because.
Speaker:My ask about that. Did you go into that? Okay?
Speaker:I had to quit because I couldn't even do it. I just. Wow. And
Speaker:we were trying to figure out what was going on, and then when we finally
Speaker:got testing done, right heart, cath
Speaker:tee echo, you know, all the whole
Speaker:work. Figured out that my right side of my heart was in failure.
Speaker:I was functioning at about 29 on the right. On the right
Speaker:side of my heart. My valve. My mitral valve was
Speaker:failing. I was severe to. I was
Speaker:moderate to severe regurgitation, and something was going to have to be
Speaker:done. But I'm not going to survive another open heart surgery.
Speaker:So off to Abbott we go again to discuss with people.
Speaker:And that was that. That was kind of the touch and go for
Speaker:a while. The T word came out. Transplant. Because they
Speaker:just knew that I wasn't going to survive another open heart surgery. They could hope
Speaker:they could do it catheter wise if they had to replace my valve, but they
Speaker:weren't confident that they could do it. So I did
Speaker:some testing there. After about a year, I did
Speaker:a right heart cath with exercise. And for
Speaker:anybody that's done that, that's a horrible experience because you can't be sedated and you're
Speaker:laying on a surgical table completely
Speaker:awake. That is awful. I just did it a month ago and it
Speaker:took me like two weeks to emotionally recover. Yeah. Oh, my
Speaker:gosh. My blood pressure before we went in was so good.
Speaker:And I get in and I get white cone syndrome. And then my blood pressure
Speaker:skyrockets to 160 over, you know, 90. And so
Speaker:they're pumping me with nitro tabs to try to get my blood
Speaker:pressure down. And then they gave me some more blood pressure medication.
Speaker:Finally, they were okay with it. I was on that table for an
Speaker:hour waiting for the test to start. Yeah. While they were cath, I
Speaker:was cath and everything else, it was right through my neck and, and everything. And
Speaker:then after it was all said and done, all that blood
Speaker:pressure medication just rushed to me and I was
Speaker:so dizzy. Yep. And of course, I
Speaker:didn't eat after midnight. And this was. It was 5 o'clock
Speaker:in the afternoon before I even got a little bit of a morsel of snack.
Speaker:So it was. Yeah, it was not a good experience. But we got a
Speaker:baseline, figured out that things were okay. And then
Speaker:come the next testing, echo, follow up a
Speaker:few months later, found out that my valves have
Speaker:improved. First time I've ever heard of when
Speaker:I get news from a doctor, it's always like, oh, it's going downhill. Yeah. But
Speaker:this is the first time I got. Well, no, it's going the other way. Your
Speaker:valves are fine. The leakage is back to moderate.
Speaker:We don't have to do surgery anytime soon. Your heart.
Speaker:At my heart, I think my right side of my heart was at 44.
Speaker:Incredible. So we're good. The ejection fraction rate was good.
Speaker:And he said, your. Your things are good. So ever since then it's
Speaker:been. It's been positive. But there's still the thought in the back of my mind
Speaker:that no matter what, that my path may
Speaker:still lead to that, because the right side of my heart will never
Speaker:recover the way. The way it was. Right.
Speaker:And like you said, you're batting a thousand. So every time they
Speaker:say go to. Yeah, you gotta go elsewhere. It's. It's always
Speaker:bad news, and it's just like, can a guy catch a break? Which is funny
Speaker:for a guy like me to say, because I've caught a ton of breaks. Right.
Speaker:I've died six times. I've flatlined six times, and here I
Speaker:still am. But it just seems like I just want to
Speaker:be able to go three years without surgery now.
Speaker:Yeah. And we're getting close. I feel you on
Speaker:fingers crossed. So how are your wife and kids?
Speaker:You know what? They're great. My wife has been
Speaker:so wonderful in the whole experience. She
Speaker:understands my daily struggles. You know, like, a lot of
Speaker:times, I don't want to get off the couch. I don't want to do anything,
Speaker:and I get a lot of leeway there, you know, and my
Speaker:kids, they were affected by it. You know, I have four daughters. The two older
Speaker:ones were, you know, I think 12 and
Speaker:15 at the time, or 13 and 15. So, I mean,
Speaker:they were when I first had my first episode, and.
Speaker:But my. My youngest daughter, she still sleeps. Still sleeps on the
Speaker:couch. She can't sleep in her bed. Because when I got home from the hospital,
Speaker:the first time that's where we slept was everyone slept in the living room with
Speaker:me while I slept in my chair that I'm sitting in. By the
Speaker:way, this is whenever I. Whenever I hear or
Speaker:see on Facebook, what are the necessities after open heart surgery?
Speaker:Electric recliner, number one. Number one. I.
Speaker:This is my recharge station. This is where I go when I don't feel good.
Speaker:Plug in. I've slept many. Slept many, many, many,
Speaker:many nights in this thing. So it affects them still to this day, like,
Speaker:I know it does, they get nervous. Like, my daughter. Like, my
Speaker:wife was on the way home, and there was an ambulance going to Duluth,
Speaker:and my daughter had to run in the house to make sure I was here,
Speaker:even though she asked my wife, you know, is that dad?
Speaker:And. And she said, no, no, he's home. And she ran in
Speaker:here to make sure I was here, because that's. I mean, that's how
Speaker:traumatic it is for them. You know, that's. A lot of people
Speaker:don't. The survivors. We have the easy part. We just
Speaker:lay there and not die. Right. I can't agree. It's our.
Speaker:It's the people that support Us. And I'm talking even bigger
Speaker:than my family. The people that I have met through Rock
Speaker:from the Heart, you know, an organization that I work with and volunteer with, the
Speaker:people I've met through a hope. Just all these connections that
Speaker:I keep making, and it's just a powerful experience when you
Speaker:can make that connection with someone. I always encourage
Speaker:anybody to reach out to me. Email, phone. I don't. I.
Speaker:I will give the world my phone number. Just reach out to me
Speaker:and let's talk, you know, because we can't do this
Speaker:alone. Nope. That's the whole point of this podcast. You
Speaker:know, it's like, it's. It is one of the
Speaker:hardest thing, knock on wood. I've not had cancer. I have
Speaker:severely broken a leg, so I can speak to that. But
Speaker:I. From what I can tell, heart. Heart stuff is
Speaker:one of the hardest roads you can walk because it's what keeps us alive, our
Speaker:heart. And it's such a complicated organ, and so many things can go
Speaker:wrong with it. I also like to say so many things can go right with
Speaker:it. Yeah. And so my greatest
Speaker:hope for you is you get to keep your beautiful heart. I mean, heck,
Speaker:y'all been through enough as it is. I'd have you to have to
Speaker:part ways. It's mine. I want, like, this is this.
Speaker:I don't. I don't want someone else. I already got somebody else's
Speaker:valve in an aorta, and who knows? If they had aortic
Speaker:disease, I might be destined for another aorta dissection. So that's
Speaker:the other thought process I gotta think about, is like, what if this were
Speaker:aorta was just like my last one, you know? So
Speaker:I want to keep my heart because even though it's damaged,
Speaker:it's mine. Exactly. It's what makes you you, and it's
Speaker:what you love with and laugh with, get scared
Speaker:with, like, all. All the things. It's right there with you.
Speaker:Well, John, thank you so much for your
Speaker:generosity of coming on the podcast today to share your story.
Speaker:I will have in the show notes help folks can find you any
Speaker:other parting words of advice or
Speaker:wisdom. You know, it's a marathon, not a sprint.
Speaker:I take it day by day, hour by hour, listen to your body
Speaker:and know that there is so many other people out there that are
Speaker:feeling just like you. And everyone's story
Speaker:and everyone's journey, even though they may be
Speaker:similar, it's a different experience for everyone.
Speaker:Not everyone has had the complications that I've had. Not everyone's had the
Speaker:complications that you've had, the next person's had. But we all share
Speaker:that common thing with that we have been through this experience.
Speaker:So please, like I said, reach out.
Speaker:I'm more than willing to talk. Oh, wow. I've made a
Speaker:new friend. You're just such a lovely soul. Thank you, John.
Speaker:Yes, you too. Yes, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. And
Speaker:for my listeners, do get in touch with John. And if you haven't
Speaker:yet, do be sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever
Speaker:you get podcasts, because I don't want you to miss any more
Speaker:episodes. And if you liked this episode today
Speaker:and you think can think of someone who would benefit from listening to it, please
Speaker:send it to them. And if you even have another
Speaker:second, I would love it if you consider leaving a review.
Speaker:It's how people find this podcast. So, John,
Speaker:thanks again and thank you to all the listeners spending a
Speaker:slice of your day with me. Me. I love you. Your heart is your
Speaker:best friend and you matter and you're never
Speaker:alone. Be sure to come back Tuesday after next. We're in the every other
Speaker:week rhythm where I will bring you another story of hope and
Speaker:inspiration.
