Over the years i’ve learned that over the span of our lives there will always be good days and bad days. Every time there was a bad for us, we always kept positive knowing there is always another day in the horizon.

Training and competing in three Ironman taught me patience while going through the preparation and the Open Heart Surgery taught me to be grateful just to wake up every morning. It seems to be a very simple thing that we all (or most of us) take for granted.

I had an aorta aneurysm that required a graft replacement in addition to a bypass after years of monitoring the growth. Alex now has a #D graft.

As we neared the end of a difficult week, I was chatting with a buddy and sharing my survival story, which made me realize once more that there is nothing more essential than waking up every morning. Everything else (and I mean everything else) then comes as secondary. Control what we can and have trust that we are here for a reason and that we don’t fully understand right now, but will become evident in time. That’s why my headlines now is “controlling what i can control…”.

As many of you visit this blog frequently, I also wanted to share that story with you today. Feel free to watch our video on YouTube and see how I went through 4 heart surgeries in ~1 month. It’s been more then 4 years now and I am doing well, just gained a lot of weight which I am trying to shed. 🙂

We make those series to create Aortic Condition awareness and raise donations. If you would like to make a donation please visit: https://www.aortichope.org/donate

My Hero, Dr. Thomas MacGillivray

My Other Hero: Mrs. Lima

Our first walk back home, priceless:

• GoldenGate