Date: 2009-12-24
From: Home

To: Christmas At Home
Miles today: 0.0

      A lot has happened since my last entry 6 months ago. After hiking about 800 miles I pulled myself off the trail. I cant give a good reason... maybe it was 23 days of rain out of 30, maybe it was the funk I was in. Not sure, I just don't have a good reason. So after being home for 2 months and missing the AT, I decided to hit the trail again coming up with a new start day of the 4th of Oct. I had already made a Dr appointment for Sept. for my annual physical and it seemed like a good time to get back out to the trail. Little did i know that I would not be going too far from home. Dr. Martin thought that he saw something on the ekg and wanted to do an echo sonagram so I walked across the hall to the cardiologist. When the Dr. got the results back he said that he saw some thickening of the aorta, at the root. Dr. Martin called and wanted me to go for a cat scan. I said when? and he said right away. So one hour later I was in the imaging office getting one done.   With that behind me i was all set for my return to the trail, all set for Oct 4th! My wife Pam kept after me to call the Dr.and I kept saying if they had found anything they would have called. But she wouldn't let up, so i called Dr. Martin's office and left a message saying that i was leaving in 4 days.   Two days passed and when i got home there was a message on my phone.   Here is what it said:   "John what ever you do, dont go hiking until you call me, night or day". So i called Dr. Martin on his cell phone and he proceeds to tell me that i have a 5 centimeter anuryesum on my ascending aorta. To make a long story short one month later on Nov. 4th i went in for open heart surgery.  They replaced my aorta, with the aortic valve from inside my heart, all the way to the Arch. Amazing thing is they used a synthetic tube made of dacron which the surgeon said will last forever. I had a wonderful group of Drs. at the North Shore Medical Center CCU in Salem, Ma and the surgery was very successful. I am extremely fortunate to have had a Dr that was on his game and found this since there were no symptoms and I had no clue that there was anything wrong.The surgery was very successful, seven weeks post op and i am in cardiac rehab now. My first goal is a snow shoeing trip at the end of February and I have already set my AT start date goal of April 15th picking up the trail in Harpers Ferry. Some day i will finish the AT and this may just be the year.       I started the trail in 2008 going 1054 miles and had to stop because my knee was bothering me. I had my knee looked at and they found I had three tears in a tendon in my right knee. This killed my through hike goal for 2008. Determined to hike the AT through in "2009" i started from Springer again and pulled off for no good reason. Maybe someone up there was looking out for me. I probably would not have finished this year either. Or anything else for that matter. I owe a lot to my wife Pam, family, friends, doctors and surgeons along with all of the great staff that cared for me. I truly thought i was invincible but of course nobody is. The trail will be there; and maybe, hopefully i will continue to hike this great trail..............AND FINISH IT. See you on Katahdin           This is my last entry for 2009. I will be back in 2010 and i will do what ever my body and heart will let me do.   Merry Xmas. to everybody. Lata Southside