Yes, I know it’s been a couple of weeks since my first post. I’m not trying to avoid anything, I just haven’t taken the time to sit down and write this post. Considering this, I’m here and writing this today. I’m here to clarify something I said two weeks ago. This isn’t my best work; I’m saying what I need to say anyway.

Two weeks ago, I talked about how I almost died. Why would I say something this drastic? Well, because saying it this way makes sense for me. I didn’t have any kind of sudden death experience. I never went through heart failure. I was never shocked back to life by any kind of medical professional.

So, why do I say I almost died?

My body started shutting down.

About eight months before my surgery, my body started giving me warning signs that I didn’t recognize. I was tired all the time. I needed more sleep than normal. I needed a several hour nap after being awake for only a few hours. The fatigue associated with aortic valve failure didn’t come on quickly, I have always tired out faster than the other kids on the playground. The fatigue became more extreme in a not-so-subtle way. The greater fatigue was just there, as the lever had moved faster than before.

I’ve never had the greatest stamina as a kid or an adult. I don’t run for anything. I will gladly walk anywhere and everywhere possible. I will walk a treadmill with no problems. I’ll ride a bike anywhere I can and avoid the hills as much as I can. I ride my exercise bike several times a week for resistance over speed. I’m not a fast person. I have learned to pace myself and last longer than quickly wearing myself out by over-doing it.

Minor fatigue has always been there. Oxygen flow has always been okay but never great. Since 2020, covid and the other respiratory problems it brought about have not been helpful. I spent a couple of years with those miserable mild flu style symptoms, fatigue being one of them. It never occurred to me the fatigue was part of valve failure.

This is the part I where I am going to share some information from The Cleveland Clinic. This particular page on their site goes through the signs and symptoms of valve failure we need to be most aware of. The Cleveland Clinic on Aortic Valve Disease

In my situation, the two symptoms affecting me the most were the fatigue and edema. Both of these were pretty subtle for me while becoming more apparent. I didn’t connect them to valve failure until early 2024. I’ll talk about that in another post. My point today is that I didn’t realize my body was shutting down. Effectively, I was starting to die. I just didn’t realize it.

It wasn’t sudden. It wasn’t dramatic. It certainly wasn’t movie worthy. But yes, I almost died.