I haven’t reported on my health in a long time. This blog was supposed to be a chronicle of my disease, Cardiomyopathy, and the resulting Heart Failure. It turns out, my health is not all that interesting.  The excitement of Emergency Rooms, surgeries and new-fangled medical devices has been replaced with stupid little pills that cause weight gain, dizziness and constant trips to the bathroom. This makes for dull reading.

But to keep you updated, which is after all the goal, you should know that I recently had a round of tests to see how my heart is functioning. Everything is exactly the same as it was a year ago. That is good news. At one time, I was hoping for improvement. But no decline is good.

For those of you in the medical field, or who will google this, my EF is 22 and my MVO2 is 16.6. These numbers suck, but they’re holding steady and I am able to live a relatively normal life.

My life is different, make no mistake about that. I spend a lot of time waiting in the car. I have handicap license plates.  Gone are hikes, 18 holes of golf, sometimes even running into the store. Yesterday, I did some volunteer work that had me standing for three hours. I spent the next three hours at home flat on my back. But I’m still here, still alive and kicking and I am grateful.

And I no longer think about dying all the time.  That is the biggest change.  I spent most of last year thinking my time horizon was short, very short.  But now I just don’t think about it. I just live.

So, you’re updated.  As my brother said, I’m above ground and above ground is good.