An Open Heart of Gratitude and Love

Celebrating the 10 year anniversary of my second open heart surgery

Asleep with baby Cordelia a few weeks after my open heart surgery

October 15th marked 10 years since my second open heart surgery. Ten years! Each year calls for celebration and especially this one!

As I reflect on 10 years, I mostly find and feel gratitude:

For my wife, Kathleen, for her steady support; for taking on the brunt of child-rearing our 2 year old daughter and 3 week old daughter following my surgery; for driving me around in the weeks after surgery — with me riding in the backseat like I was Miss Daisy heading to the Piggly Wiggly; for her willingness to be wooed by and to wed a man with a congenital heart defect with an unknown health trajectory; for her love all these years even though I am certainly not the easiest fellow to live with.

For my daughters, who show love for their Dad in 1,001 ways every day.

For Mom, Brooken, Katie, Margaret, Rudy, Kara, Meghan, Adam, and now Michael and Juliana, Aunt Susan and Uncle Ray, Aunt Mary and David, Uncle Pipes and Aunt Susan, and my nieces and nephews, for being with me in-person and in-spirit on the day of my surgery and all the days after.

For John and Whitney Colleran, Alison Kearney Davis, John Huyette, and Danny Gustafson, for visiting me in the days after the surgery.

For the incredible medical teams at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Lurie Children’s Hospital and Norton Healthcare, for their skilled and superb care for me, then and now, including but not limited to: Drs. Learn, Veldtman, Alexander, Deal, Tsao, de Freitas, Backer, and Brown; nurses and techs Felicia, Barbara, Nicolette and Bill; and one volunteer magician who made the day of one 39 year old kid shortly after surgery.

For my strength and health team, for guiding with diligence and sensitivity my exercise regimen in preparation for surgery and in the years since: strength trainers “Maximum Bob” Whelan, Ethan Wilson and Ryan Brown; physical therapists Krista McBride and Quinn Henoch; yoga instructors Laurie LeCompte and Abbey Brooks; masseuse Cathy S of Keeper of the Well; nutritionist Natalie; rucking friends Dom, Jenny, John, Richard, Nathan, Cathy and many more, and Cadre Steve, Cadre Hand, Cadre Whisky Mike, and Cadre JC. Thank you all for pushing me ever so slightly to go one step beyond myself.

For John Cunningham, financial advisor, and Doug Bozell, estate attorney, for helping me with the planning aspects of the moment and life in general.

For Sharon, who hosted our dog Teddy for three weeks while we were in Chicago for my surgery.

For so many friends, who helped Kathleen and me in the months after the surgery, babysitting the girls, cooking meals for me, running errands, sending me cards, letters, emails, texts, balloons, and other gifts, and much more.

There is more. There always is. If 10 years can be encapsulated in two words, the only two that will do are: “gratitude” and “love.”