“The reason why one man is great and another man is living in mediocrity is simply because one understood the value of time while the other did not.”
― Sunday Adelaja
Greetings dear friends,
Sometimes live teaches us valuable lessons if only we allow ourselves to see them and learn from it. Often it takes more than one time to learn from it, but if we're willing to see, listen and learn, there is always room for improvement and growth.
The main lesson of this year for me has been to value my time.
That's why I would like to wish you reading this a healthy, peaceful Christmas quality time spent with your loved ones. To appreciate each other, yourself, be grateful for every little things, and mostly that we are here, alive and given another day to do great things for one another.
Decided to share more about my story of spending almost two months in a hospital from one day when I was feeling alright, with no real symptoms, looking for chestnuts and mushrooms, taking a long walk threw the woods, to seeking emergency help in near by hospital in the early morning hours the next day.
Link of a previous part of the story (In a Heartbeat)
Sharing my story because there is way too little talk about Heart dessease nowadays. Even 6 months ago I haven't had any slight knowledge about it or how it is diagnosed. I've always believed that it is a disease of ˝the old people¨, I couldn't be more wrong about it.
It's a lot more common than it used to be, only 100 years ago it was called as natural death cause, but today it's becoming ever more common with the influence of bad habits, fast way of living, stress, use of alcohol, smoking etc..
After I got in to hospital, doctors done all the researches and confirmed my bad aort valve leaking badly and the increased size of my heart because of it I started waiting for the surgery. When I recovered after getting covid in the hospital, they gave me another date of transporting me to UKC Maribor where they made the surgery and recovery after it.
On 10.11 I got to our second biggest city in sLOVEnia Maribor where they gave me a lot of papers to fill, read and explained me what is and what will be happening to me after the surgery with all the procedures.
In the morning they prepared me for the operation, at around 9am they got me to the surgery room and I woke up all tangled up, dizzy and with many devices connected to me, one of them was also the one that helped me breathe while the surgery - just as they explained me the previous day. I was kind of in a rush ¨to get back¨ as I woke up just hour and a half after surgery ended. That was around 5pm.
That's what calmed me down, knowing what will happen, that everything is going to be alright and the positivity among the nurses and doctors. As the days slowly flew by, with a lot of pain killers, smiles and keeping up faith, remembering of my goals, being grateful for smallest things daily it started getting better and better.
I faced many fears in these days spent in hospital, one of the biggest one was not being able to take care of myself at all. Right next day after the surgery a physiotherapist helped me to sit and eat the soup, then they helped us do light exercises every day and gradually start to stand, get a feel for walking again and be able to move again.
I was told that 1 out of 100 people has some kind of a heart problem from birth, I was one of them, but nobody never knew about it, till a cardio specialist got me and found ˝a hole˝ in my heart.
Was fortunate enough that nurses were always up for a lough, full of positive energy and people that loved their work and always loved helping other people. Weather that is physically, mentally or just keeping up the good spirit.
There were still ups and downs after the surgery, even with all the help and keeping up the good spirit, first one was that it flooded my heart, when doctors came to get the blood out, the second one was when when it flooded my left lung, that are common complications after surgery like this. The third one was increased inflammatory parameters that indicated some sort of infection, that is also common on young people like me, when the body wants to fight against the mechanical valve made out of carbon and few other bits and pieces.
For that I was receiving strong antibiotics many times in a day for over 2 weeks, but in this time, the pain has gotten a lot smaller, pain killers weren't needed and I was able to start walking up and down the stairs with help of physiotherapist, walking on the hall by myself and going alone to the toilet and taking a shower that I now value soo much more.
The last two week of my time in hospital I almost felt like at home, knew most of the nurses by their name and knew all the daily procedures, one of them was knowing when they had time to rest or eat, that's when I asked if they ever order anything to eat - when they said yes.
My ever growing appetite started making munchies from the morning till the evening and when the lunch wasn't as big as hoped for I also ordered a chinese restaurant not far away from the hospital, it tasted like the best meal this year!
The next day I was trying to figure out a way to thank and give nurses something little back for all their extra effort, knowledge, smiles, help and positivity when I really needed it. That's when I heard on the walk threw the hall that nurses talked about pizza and got me thinking. Got the exact time they normally make orders and ordered family size pizza with a request to write ˝Thank you so much <3˝ on the box. They all were very surprised and made me so satisfied and happy when I saw nurses smiles when they got it. They couldn't resist but to give me a small slice to try it out as well, then this is what the last week of my hospital looked like.
I was full everyday, satisfied all the possible needs in the hospital while recovering and felt almost like nurses are my friends. Couldn't really connect with any fellow patient, so I focused on myself and positive energies as I knew that ˝what goes around, does come around˝.
Last two days were mentally the hardest ones for me as I couldn't wait to come out, get some fresh air, go home, in peace, see nature and start the real recovery.
But everything comes to pass, not to stay so after 55 days, many painkillers, different feel for myself, getting used to everything new to me and most importantly, getting used to strong beats of my heart, working as it should from the star, I got home and started a new journey from there on.
Where did the tittle come from? I was asking myself as well as I was looking in to figure one out, got the idea on the walk of thinking why I'm grateful this very moment, one of which is that I'm lucky to be here, truly grateful to live another Christmas spirit, that I woke up, that I can be 90% independent again, that I can walk, see the sunrise/fall again , that I can hear, eat and slowly start to function normally again.
What didn't kill me, did make me realize how valuable time & live is, learning along the way and making us all stronger & wiser.
― Napoleon Hill
