Tiny Bubbles.....

Wednesday, 27 May was my one month follow-up appointment to see how the PFO closure was healing, to make sure the device is working as it should and to find out whats next. I was hoping for good news, what I got was so much more.

I showed up to the fifth floor of the south tower at Cedars Sinai about an hour and a half early. I guess that I was feeling excited and apprehensive at the same time. Before seeing the Doctor I was having an echocardiogram with bubble study. Basically, it is a normal echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) but at one point they inject a bunch of saline bubbles into a vein and watch them flood into the right atrium. If the surgery worked as it was supposed to, all of the bubbles would stay in the right atrium and not shoot across into the left thru the newly closed PFO.

I have become somewhat used to having echos done now. I know what images they are going to grab and typically in what order. I even know how to stay comfortable in the awkward positions. So I knew when it was over and time for the bubbles. A nurse had already come in before the test and installed an IV line in my arm but for the actual injection of the bubbles the technician called the Fellow who was on duty.

The tech had a pretty picture of my left and right atria on the screen (the right one appears on the left of the screen.....go figure). And in coordination with the fellow, the bubbles were injected rapidly. On the screen the right atrium started to show up bright white as the bubbles rushed in. The left atrium was remarkably empty. Neither myself, the tech nor the Fellow could see any bubbles pass thru the PFO. The surgery worked as it should have.

With a new sense of relief I left the echo lab and made my way to the Doctor's office. I felt like a kid running home to see a parent with a good report card (not that I have ever known THAT feeling). I couldn't wait to hear what Dr. Kar would say. Most of my apprehensiveness had now been replaced with pure excitement.

At Dr. Kar's office the wait felt intolerable. It wasn't very long but I was dying to get in to see him. Asma came and took me to the room and went over how I was doing. She asked if I had received her reply to my email that told me basically no increased physical activity until at least a month after surgery. I said I did receive it and we laughed that I knew the answer to the question before I had asked it....guilty.

Dr. Kar came in and was as excited as he is every time I have seen him. He asked how I was feeling and I told him that I was fantastic. He read the echo report and told me that the doctor who read the results had seen a couple of tiny bubbles make it into the left atrium. Dr. Kar told me not to worry about that because first off I had, in his words, "a Huge PFO"; and secondly at the end of six months enough scar tissue should grow over the device so that no bubbles would come thru. But for now, the size and relative amount that passed thru were nothing at all to be concerned about.

Then when the appointment was drawing to a close I asked about my activity level; about what I could or could not do. In one of those moments where one's words were not specifically chosen but they are exactly right he said "you can do anything". How inspiring is that? That's right, I have NO LIMITATIONS now. I committed that upon my return to the mats (probably Tuesday, 2 June) I would take it slowly and not roll for a month or so. The Doctor told me to come see him again at the six month mark and sent me on my way.

I cant begin to describe my appreciation for Dr. Kar, Asma, and the entire team who got me thru this. When one hears that they have a hole in their heart the level of fear is paralyzing. They made it so easy to deal with and as I saw with my own eyes, they fixed it.

When I return to the mats next week, it will have been after about five months off. I last trained on Saturday, 10, January. 2009 will go down as a year where I lost half of it to a couple of strokes, the discovery of a hole in my heart, surgery and finally a mid-year triumphant return.

Stay posted, the return of Jiu Jitsu content is imminent!!!

Dinner with the Mighty 6(00,000)

A big thanks to Caleb from The Fightworks Podcast for arranging the first "BJJ Dinner with the Family" on Tuesday 19 May down in Beautiful San Diego http://thefightworkspodcast.com/2009/05/16/bjj-dinner-with-the-family/ .

This was a great opportunity for me to take a short drive (three hours each way) and enjoy the company of and conversation with others who love my sport. We had some great discussions on current topics and everyone at the table helped me to gain some perspective on the situation at my own gym.

Now, there were only six of us there so the running joke was that each of us represented 100,000 listeners. I look forward to being able to do this on a more regular basis.

Thanks again Caleb, thanks to everyone who was there. Hopefully we can all share a roll one day!

One Month

Healing Milestone:
Well here we are. It has been one month (30 days) since my PFO closure operation. In many ways it feels like just a few days have passed and in others it feels like it has been so long. This is the first significant milestone in my recovery. This coming Wednesday (27 May) I have my follow-up where the doctors will take a look with an echocardiogram to make sure things are healing as they should. I will make sure to post my results as soon as I hear them.

PFO Migraine Stroke Group:
While I am on the subject of my PFO. Someone who read my blog pointed me in the direction of a new PFO Migraine Stroke group on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=106434738635 . The group is still small but hopefully it will grow to help people like me who are struggling with the same problem.

Random News:
I am hoping to start a separate blog for just my medical adventures so that when I return to the mats I can return this one back to its Jiu Jitsu focus while still continuing to write about PFO, Stroke and Migraine. I feel that these are issues that are just not discussed enough and It is my mission to help educate, inspire and guide people struggling with the problems that inhibited me for so long. Keep your eyes open for that new blog as my return to the mats draws near. Also, keep your fingers crossed for me as I go into my appointment on Wednesday, optimism is high.

Impatient Patient

Recovery Day: 19

As the title suggests, I can be a bit difficult at times. Most of the time, when it counts, I can be the picture of patience. I can outlast most people even in the most arduous of circumstances. I think that on the whole I have been pretty darn good in dealing with this impossible situation over the last three years; especially in the last six months when it became exponentially worse and kept me from doing many of the things I love.

So, now it has been about 6 months since I have hit the mats. Part of the reason I have been able to keep pressing forward without going completely mental is the fact that I had an enemy to fight. I had suffered a number of small strokes with at least two of them leaving their autographs visible only via MRI. I was suffering with numbness down my right arm and focusing on getting better and finding answers helped to keep me preoccupied and my mind off training.

On 9 March when I had two strokes within 24 hours and found myself in the hospital with a diagnosed problem, a PFO (hole in my heart) I suddenly had a new mission. Time to get it fixed. Once I get that bad boy all patched, all is good. Its back to action. I got my PFO fixed on 24 April 2009, just 43 short days after it was discovered.

Now I have no more battle. No more fight. I am feeling fantastic. There is however a long way between feeling and being. It has only been 19 days since my surgery. This foreign object that has been lodged into my heart has not had much time to settle in and begin get covered over by scar tissue. I am in that precarious spot between feeling awesome and being awesome.

I feel like I could jump right back into what I used to do, or at least back into SOMETHING, but as one of my doctors just confirmed for me....I can't. I am not supposed to do ANYTHING physically exhertive for at least one month following the surgery. Now that makes total sense in my head, but now that I am fighting no other battles and I don't have that to keep me preoccupied or worried, I am dying to get back in action.

I go back to see the Doctor for my one month follow-up on 27 May. At that appointment they will do an echocardiogram and inject some bubbles into my heart so they can see if the hole is sealed properly. Hopefully I will also get the green light to begin to gradually step-up my physical activity level. Cross your collective fingers for me!

Side note: Grappling with Life in Seattle
I am going to Seattle this weekend. My wife and I are taking a short vacation for no good reason other than we need one. We will be the stereotypical tourists doing all the tourist things but we will also be seeing my BELOVED BOSTON RED SOX trample the Mariners at Safeco Field on Friday night. If there are any must see BJJ tourist spots in Seattle, please send me a note!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Today is my Birthday. Well, not exactly. You won't find any note of it on my driver's license. Its not on my passport; nor is it on my birth certificate. So, as far as any "official" body is concerned technically today is just any other day, but symbolically.....today I am one week old.

The card I carry in my pocket provided by NMT (the company that manufactured the device used to plug the hole in my heart) lists the model number, serial number, lot number and the date....April 24th 2009. One week ago today. So the way I see it today deserves a bit of celebration.

Anyone who has followed my blog for a while, especially those of you who have read this since before I KNEW I HAD A HOLE IN MY HEART (that still freaks me out sometimes) will know that nostalgia is not my strong suit. I wrote about how new years resolutions tend to go by the wayside (http://grappling-with-life.blogspot.com/2009/01/goals-for-2009.html) and that I would rather make goals. So needless to say, I am finding myself struggling to find the proper perspective on this second chance at a normal life.

I don't want to be one of those whacked out people who suddenly sells off all their possessions, moves to a cave and contemplates their navel for the rest of eternity. On the other hand I don't want to be unappreciative either. This is a rather profound event in my life that very likely has saved my life. I feel a great responsibility to get things right, I feel like I need to be a voice for these issues. I feel like I need to be the best me I can be.

It fills my heart to know that this little blog has begun to help already. Some of you may have noticed the "For more information" contact bar that I added off to the right hand side. Shortly after my post about finding my PFO and adding that contact link, two people with conditions mirroring mine contacted me. Both of them had suffered strokes (one of them multiple times like myself), both of them had PFO's recently found and like me both of them were looking for answers. Because of this little blog, I was able to help. One of the two had their PFO closed TODAY by the very same doctor who did mine one week ago!!! I cannot express how good it makes me feel to know that I was able to help someone while on my own path to wellness.

This person never did BJJ, had never read my blog before. I was stumbled upon simply because they were googling the things I had written about. I know they will read this so when they do, I want them to know that I am so happy that they are also on the road to recovery and they better enjoy the journey....Happy Birthday!!!

That Part of my Life is Over!!! The PFO is Closed!!!

Friday was the big day. PFO closure surgery at Cedars Sinai. My wife and I got to Cedars before 0500 in the morning. They told us to be there by 0600 but we did not want to risk being late given the fact that we had to travel south on the 405 freeway on a weekday. Upon our arrival we knew that this experience would be dramatically different than any other medical procedure either of us had ever had.

The staff working the front desk of the south tower that early Friday morning were as welcoming and accommodating as you would expect to find professional concierges in high end hotels. I signed in and upon their urging took a seat in the well appointed waiting room. We waited for about ten minutes until one of the ladies from the front desk called my name along with the name of another guest. As I rose to my feet she came to me instead of me going to the desk. I was assuming that I needed to fill out some of the requisite paperwork; instead she proceeded to walk my wife and I along with the other party to the elevators and all the way to our destination, the 6th floor.

My wait in the 6th floor lobby was not very long. The registration agent at the desk told me that they would probably be calling me back at about 0615; guess what time they called me back....0615. I cannot begin to describe how much I appreciate punctuality and respect for the patients time when in a hospital setting. Having that one thing to count on makes all the difference when one is facing stressful situations.

When they took me back to the prep area, the professionalism continued. This is a well-oiled machine that does not compromise. I will spare everyone all of the details of the prep work they performed with two exceptions: First, there are no clothes under that gown; and Second, the part of you they prepare for the Catheter to be inserted so they can get up to the heart is not in the "leg" like they say....think a bit higher...that's all I will say. If you want any deeper insights please just use the link to the right and email me.

The procedure was simply amazing. I was AWAKE the entire time. After a few minutes the nurses mildly sedated me to take the edge off but I never became less lucid. My thoughts might have been a bit slower but I was still able to be conversant with the surgical team as well as watch the four monitors that showed the surgery progressing. Dr. Kar showed me the Starflex device before he sent it up and into my heart. Simply amazing, and big. He exclaimed upon seeing my PFO on the screen that I had a "Huge" PFO. I replied back that size matters and the surgical team had a bit of a chuckle.

While they were testing atrial chamber pressure using did begin getting a migraine. Dr. Kar told me that this was a relatively common occurrence, that the bubbles traveling thru the PFO and into the brain can cause migraine. They were able to give me medicine intravenously that aborted the migraine as the aura faded. The only downside to me was not being able to see the end of the procedure. There was never a point during the procedure that I felt any discomfort. When Dr. Kar was injecting the contrast dye and anaesthetic into my leg, I felt the needle and the bit of pain from that but nothing else.

I must give a great deal of thanks to everyone who was in the room. All of the doctors and nurses who worked on me during the procedure were so professional, caring and accommodating. Of course I have already raved about Dr. Kar in my previous post. This time I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Broder as well. Dr. Broder was very friendly and took the time to make sure I understood what was going on. He also acted as my discharge doctor and helped me clear up an issue with my incompetent local pharmacy. Big thanks to Dr. Broder for that. I also met a Dr. Dublin (I hope the spelling is correct), he was in his words "low on the totem pole" with the team but I could tell that given time he will be an outstanding choice for this procedure. Dr. Dublin came into the pre-op room and spent some time with my wife and I explaining how things would go and then after the procedure he went out to the waiting room to tell her that everything went well and brought her back to see me.

They wheeled me back into an ICU / Cardiac Step-Down center where I got my own private room. I had to lie pretty much flat on my back for 6 hours before I was allowed to sit up. Then after a couple more hours a doctor came to remove the sutures from my "leg". They put on a compression bandage and that was it. The only pain was a bit of stinging when the doctor wiped alcohol on the sutures. I had a gaping hole in my leg and a foreign object in my heart, but I was feeling good and in no pain. How cool is that?

I camped out in the room until morning when they did an echocardiogram to make sure the device was in place and holding tight. Then Dr. Broder came in at 10:00 when he said he would, and released me. We headed for home, stopping off to get some real food outside the confines of the hospital.

It's been a couple of days now and I still feel fantastic. I am moving around like I always have. Today I took off the bandages and though the bruising looks bad, the actual incision is pretty minor and I don't think there will be much of a scar. I am on Plavix for three months and asprin for at least six. I am allowed to begin moderate exercise again within the next week or two. I will be allowed to resume BJJ after the three month mark. Sooner if they determine that scar tissue is growing over the device fast enough.

A big bit of thanks to everyone for your support and well wishes. This has been a very long three years of two strokes and three TIA's, heart problems and not having any answers. I am so happy that it seems all of that should be behind me now.

The First Day of the Rest of...Cedar Sinai Rocks!!!

I saw Dr. Kar at Cedars on Wednesday, 15 April. What a different experience than I had at UCLA. First off, I cannot say enough about how welcoming and accommodating Dr. Kar and his staff were.

My wife and I were first greeted by Dr. Kar's P.A. Asma because he had scrubbed into a procedure earlier in the day and was still assisting. Asma sat down with us and listened as we recounted my journey of the last three years. We detailed each stroke that I have had from the first one in 2006 all the way up to the two in one day that I just suffered back on 9 March.

We told her about the PFO that they had found while I was in the hospital and that while we were terrified to learn that I had a hole in my heart, we were exhilarated to learn that there might be a permanent solution. Then the story shifted to detailing my experience at UCLA and how the esteemed doctor there had only offered me entrance into a trial, and how self serving that seemed. A "miss-trial" she asked, and with that remark, we decided just how much we liked her already.

She told us that with my mix of symptoms and history, that doctors certainly should recommend closure. She told us that Dr. Kar would more than likely want the same thing, just as soon as he finishes up with the procedure. Asma told us to go downstairs, have some coffee or something to eat and come back up at our leisure and the doctor should be back by then. So we did.

Upon our return to the offices, Asma took us into the exam room again and right behind her Dr. Kar entered. My nerves were already a mess. I had been anticipating this appointment for weeks now, and after the glimmer of good news Asma had given us just an hour before this meeting, I was extraordinarily nervous. What if we were this far and he decided not to do it, what if for whatever reason I am not a good candidate, what if....its just another trial.

After just a few moments with Dr. Kar, filling him in on my history, all of my fears were laid to rest. He was amazing. Finally someone understood. He listened to our concerns and addressed each one. He then described the procedure in detail, told me how perfect my case is for trials, and then told me that he was not going to twist my arm to join his because as he jokingly put it I "had earned it".

He is going to perform my surgery using the Starflex device which is getting FDA approval next week. I will be one of the first people to receive this device without having to be in a trial. He has used it in a great many procedures already, for clinical trials of the device. This is the newest and the best device and is perfect for my PFO. Once this device is implanted it will start to become a part of me. Scar tissue and heart muscle will grow around it, making it invisible in months.

My surgery is going to take place on Friday, 24 April at Cedars Sinai. That is right, basically one week from now. I will go in Friday and be home on Saturday. I will be back at work on Monday and back to full activity within weeks. Back to the mats within........NOT TOO MUCH LONGER!!!

A Moment of Gratitude

I know its true for myself, and I'd venture to say its true for many out there, that we all tend to get wrapped up in ourselves from time to time. Bloggers especially can fall into this trap. Lets face it, we talk about ourselves a lot. I try to make it a point to let people know that I appreciate them regularly, but as I said its hard sometimes.

When I was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago, everyone knew I wasn't dying or anything. For all intents and purposes it was routine...for me. I had suffered yet another TIA (mini-stroke) and though this was the first hospitalization, it certainly was not my first rodeo. What was amazing to me was the fact that even though I was fine, and everyone knew that...people showed up. I get a little choked up just putting that on paper. It blows me away that someone would willingly go into a hospital when they don't have to, in order to see someone who is doing well and ready to get the heck out of there.

As you can see by reading my past few posts, I learned some pretty shocking and difficult news about my heart while I was in the hospital, and with the love and support of my wife plus the support of everyone who came to see me or called or texted me, I knew I had a deep bench to call upon during difficult times.

I am eternally grateful to Caleb from The Fightworks Podcast. Without him, well there would be no Fightworks Podcast first off. Secondly, he is the reason I started this silly little blog to begin with. Last year when he posted his list of blogs he reads and the instructions on how to view them in google reader I followed his advice. That introduced me to this wonderful community we have. Before then I never knew just how many others shared my passion. I came to love checking reader daily, to see what was going on in the lives of Gringa, 365, Slidey, Steve, Valerie, Farts and countless others. This was the perfect outlet for someone like me.

Caleb was kind enough to include me in his listing late last year and now that he has posted his revised "Blogs I read" list / file, I find myself on there again. I really am grateful for that. Because anyone who has read my blog lately has found pretty much zero Jiu Jitsu content as I have been off the mats since mid to late January. So, a big THANK YOU Caleb. I'm so glad you are out there. Below is the link to Caleb's post which has the OPML file and instructions to upload and use Google Reader.

http://thefightworkspodcast.com/2009/04/02/bjj-blogs-i-read-updated/

Or if you are more tech savvy than I, here is the OMPL file itself:

Download the OPML File of BJJ Blogs Here

Also, I am so thankful to everyone who reads this blog. Those of you who left me comments after my first post out of the hospital, I want you to know I truly appreciate it. You guys are the reason I love this sport so much. From the outside it can look so imposing and even hostile, but once you are inside it, the only word to describe it is...family. Thank you all for being a part of mine.

The UCLA Adventure

On Tuesday, 17 March I went to UCLA to talk to their specialist about closing my PFO. At least, that is what I thought was happening.

I was extraordinarily excited to see this doctor at UCLA. Of course, UCLA has a great reputation. They are a teaching hospital, they attract some of the best and brightest doctors in the world to their programs. All of the research I had done on PFO closure had been published by Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, a premier cardiac hospital in this country, but if anyone on the west coast and certainly in the Los Angeles area (where I live) is capable of performing the same procedures it has to be UCLA right?.....Right?

When I was ushered into the room there were two Doctors sitting in the room eager to meet me. That alone was a bit of a red flag. I was there to meet Dr. Jonathan Tobis who has a rather impressive resume and is the only doctor at UCLA dealing with PFO closure. Dr. Tobis was one of the two in the room along with a resident who was assisting him. The review of my condition, watching of my TEE film and discussion of options quickly blended into what felt like a sales pitch for the Clinical Trial or "Study" that it turns out I am a perfect candidate for.

UCLA is performing a study to help qualify a new device that "could potentially" be used for PFO closure if it is ever given FDA approval. The Doctor Went on to tell me that the FDA has not approved ANY devices for the closure of a PFO in this country. He told me that if I join the study I would get a 50/50 chance. Half the study participants would get drug treatment and half would get surgery using a "new" device unlike the one that Cleveland Clinic uses and has had great success with already. 50/50 odds when I already know I need to have my condition fixed and I do not want to be on drugs for the long term are just not acceptable.

So I left UCLA that day a bit disheartened, pardon the pun. The next morning I called a phone number that was on one of the pages I printed out from Cleveland Clinic. I just randomly cold called hoping to get some answers. To my surprise, I did. A very helpful guy told me everything I could have ever wanted to know over the phone. He told me that it is true that the FDA does not want to approve a device for PFO closure because it is a "common" defect and only a small percentage of those with the problem suffer ill-effects. But the fix can be done using devices that are perfectly safe and approved for use in the heart for the repair of an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD). They use these devices "off-label" to seal a PFO rather than the ASD.

The guy from Cleveland told me that they are also involved in studies to get devices approved for sealing PFO, but given my condition they would not hesitate to offer me the choice to join the studies or to just GET IT FIXED using the tried and true methods. He also told me that UCLA should have offered me a similar option rather than only offering me the study. In my mind, that confirmed my bad feelings about that experience.

So I went back to doing some research and found an article from a few years ago wherein a doctor at Cedars Siani performed a PFO closure using the same techniques, using the same device that Cleveland Clinic uses to treat someone within my same age range. Not a study, not some trial to get something approved, not horrible drugs but a fix and the guy is doing great now. Immediately I contacted Cedar's and began asking them questions. They told me that the doctor in the story is indeed THE ONLY doctor who has done PFO closure for them. The only problem is that he is out of the country and does not come back till 15 April. So I will see him on......guess when......15 April. I am being cautiously optimistic, because I know how my optimism turned out with UCLA. Till then, I will continue with the horrible drugs and keep moving forward.

If Cedars does not work out, next stop......Cleveland.

A Hole in my Heart.....Literally

It's been a long time since my last post: Hopefully this explains why successfully and with any luck there wont be such a gap again.

Irony is a bitch:

Just a few hours after that last post, I had another TIA. Only much worse. Just after midnight Monday night / Tuesday morning (however you want to quantify it) I woke up feeling that oh so familiar "something is very wrong" sensation. The entire right side of my body was completely numb. From my face all the way down to my foot, everything was numb. I knew immediately what was happening. Of course knowledge turned to fear as I had just experienced a TIA within the last 24 hours, could this be a massive stroke coming to do me in at last?

I woke my wife up, rather ungracefully, and called my neurologist right away. He told me to head to the emergency room and that he would call ahead, get me thru the wait and get me admitted. When we arrived, we made our way thru the metal detector and the human wasteland that is the Antelope Valley Hospital emergency room and got to the check in window. I announced that my doctor should have called ahead for me.

The woman at the desk asked me what I was there for and I told her I was suffering either a stroke or a TIA. She said "Well its not a stroke, if it were you would not be able to talk". I then said "really? I've had 5 of them, how many have you had?" and that seemed to get things moving. True to my neurologist's word, we were ushered right thru and did not wait in the ER waiting room at all. We were taken back to an ER bed immediately and I was given the requisite blood thinners and bevy of tests.

A few hours later I was taken upstairs to the room they had waiting for me and was told that an MRI was scheduled for the morning. The night RN urged me to try to get some rest, which is of course impossible. A hospital is no place to rest and get well.

The next morning I was taken for an MRI and an MRA which I had never had. The MRA basically looks at all the blood vessels in the brain using the MRI machine. Luckily the results of both were negative. Meaning there was no new damage. The numbness had already begun to fade and was now just in my right cheek, hand and foot. Classic TIA. What a relief.

Later that morning, my cardiologist stopped by to see me. He said that since I am already in the hospital, he wanted to go ahead and perform the TEE test that we had scheduled for Friday but to move it to the next morning. Since I already have a room, and some comfy clothes on, we might as well take advantage.

TEE:

So the procedure went smoothly, there were no complications or mishaps. Afterword in recovery, the tech asked me if the Dr. had come by to see me to discuss what they had found...nope. That sounded ominous. Then the nurse did the same thing. Now curiosity is setting in as anaesthesia is wearing off.

Later on, back in the room, a hematologist came by to see me. He told me that the cardiologist had found a PFO (Patent Foramen Ovale). A PFO is a small hole between the two atriums of the heart. Everyone has it in the womb, its necessary before birth but after birth it is supposed to seal shut and in most people it does. It is estimated that anywhere from 12-15% of the population at large walks around with a PFO, but very few of those people every suffer any ill-effects from it.

In my case, this hole between the atriums allows bad blood and small clots from one side of my heart to escape to the other side. This bad blood and these small clots then travel to the good side and then straight to the brain. Small clots going thru the brain equal TIA or Strokes. PFO is also related to migraine. In many studies the relationship is huge.

What Now?

Wow. A reason. It was a shock to hear that I had a hole in my heart but at the same time it was almost a relief. Now there is something tangible something that we can see. Something we can fix? As soon as I heard the words, I called my wife, I called Friends at work and got everyone researching. Looking for everything to do with PFO.

We found all kinds of literature from the Cleveland Clinic about PFO and what they are doing to close them now. There is some encouraging information and recovery time is minimal because they can do it thru a cath now. The Doctors set me up to see a specialist at UCLA just as soon as I got out of the hospital (More on that in the next post).

Knowing my condition, the doctors put me on Coumadin (a gnarly anti-coagulant) which makes you live like your in bubble wrap. I cant do anything I like to do. Nothing very active that can cause bruising or god forbid, bleeding. Mountain biking is out, Kickboxing is out, BJJ is out. I cant do anything that involves risking bruising or bleeding. Its like being in prison. The sooner I can get this stuff fixed and get off the drugs, the better.

So late Friday night(March 13) , around midnight I escaped. I was finally released from the hospital. I was given my orders to see UCLA the following week about patching the hole in my heart, I was given my prescription for Coumadin and I was told to come to the lab every day so they can draw blood to check its level in my system. It was quite an ordeal but at least I have some answers. After three years of strokes for no good reason, I finally have something to actively pursue.

In my next post I will talk about what happened at UCLA and just how much of a pain it is to try to find a good place to get a PFO closed. Lesson learned....don't mess with Irony, it will get you back.