It was a year ago this morning that I woke up not feeling right and with a bad backache after what I thought was simply a restless night.

I was having a heart attack.

I did not have the usual symptoms…at least what I knew of as the usual symptoms. I had no arm pain but had back and chest pains that I attributed to sleeping in a weird position. I also had the cold sweats but thought it was the high humidity in the air.

These were things I now know as symptoms of a cardiac event. After having the heart attack I was concerned every time I had some weird feeling – “Uh-oh…not again. What is THAT pain? Should I call 911? Should I not?”. You get the idea.

But I felt confident that the cardiologist and his team had everything under control and I should not worry so much…after all, they sent me home four days after a stent was quickly installed upon my arrival to the ER. But you DO still worry. You just cannot help it.

There have been many life changes in the past year due to that and the resulting triple-bypass surgery a couple of months afterwards; trying to not only lower my stress levels, but also be more active, eating less, and eating better. I am fine with all of these changes.

I still have the neuropathy stuff around the incision and in the muscles in the left side of my chest. I feel great otherwise and have come a long way in the last year. Yeah, I have a few new meds I have to take every day but at least I am still here to take them. It’s all been so weird.

And scary at times.

For the most part I have kept the weight off that I lost – I gained back only about four pounds (fluctuates a pound or two here and there but stays pretty consistent). That is not too bad, and using my food diary/diet app has helped so much with that. It is the best way to help monitor what you eat for whatever reason you want to keep track of it for. I diligently watch fats, sodium, and protein levels. The weather is getting better and I have been more active lately (closing the Apple Watch rings!) so I am certain that those extra few pounds will come back off. I definitely feel more energetic.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been two years since my last trip to Europe; we flew to Ireland to spend several days meandering across the center of the island, and two years ago today we were on a plane headed to Köln, Germany for the day then on a train to Amsterdam for a few days before coming back. A great trip and we were reminiscing about it again a few days ago. In fact, you can go back and check it out (and all my other trips over the last 10 years) if you haven’t already! Good times.

That is all for this post.