I Missed a Week of Blogging!

Those who have been visiting my blog for the last few days I'm sure have been wondering why I have not been posting. The same goes for my email. None answered since Tues the 14th of June.

I guess I'll put it to you the same way I told my buddy Mike on Saturday - "I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is I've quit smoking. The bad news is I had open heart 'triple bypass' surgery." Mike wasn't sure if I was joking or not and I told him I was as serious as a heart attack. Actually I was a little less serious than that because I had no damage to the heart prior to the surgery. With a cadre of prayer warriors at my back the Lord met me with blessings in spite of the situation. Wednesday morning the camera work inside my veins showed that stints were not applicable. I needed full on bypasses in three veins because they were up to 90% blocked. The only signs I had were pain coming and going in my left arm and what felt like a touch of heartburn that would only last a few seconds or so...What finally convinced me it was time to go in was when I thought of how ticked off my wife Renee' would be if she woke up in the morning and found I had died during the night...

The surgery on Friday morning went smoothly and I was in ICU recovery within 4 hours. My wife and friends were locked out of ICU but one pal, Barry Goldman, the Chief Musician at Jubilee Fellowship, the church I attend, managed to find a back way in to the ward. Imagine my surprise when the first moment I open my eyes I had Barry hovering over me, smiling and welcoming me to the land of the living. It certainly is a picture I will not forget. Even if I wanted to I could not forget it.

Speaking of pictures I thought I'd include one showing my new scars. It's sort of a guy thing. I was going to post the picture here but my daughter suggested it might be in better taste to just link to it. - Click here for my 'sort of a guy pic' showing my new scars. -

The healing part is going pretty well. I was out of ICU in a little over 24 hours and a couple days of being pampered by some wonderful people in the Little Company of Mary Hospital they released me back into the wild. I will still need a touch of prayers re: the smoking bit. Although I got a week head start I found the temptation was still out here in the big wide-open world. Two things are helping in this area. One is I've made a quality decision to cease and desist 'cause I'm fed up with it. It holds me back spiritually. The other is that I'm certain the Living God let me off easy this time. Next time The blessings might be a little on the short end compared to the way they were this time...