On Dec 12, 1981 I was born with a heart condition called “Aortic Stenosis.” What this means is that my Aortic Valve was narrower then normal and will continue to get narrower over time.
That impedes Rich Oxygen Blood to flow from my Left Ventricle to the Aorta then throughout my entire body. The result in a serious condition is death by heart attack. After doing a few tests these past 7 weeks, they discovered my condition was very serious and were surprised I haven’t felt any of the side effects (light headed, chest pains, shortness of breather). Not taking any chances, I booked the first available date and it just so happened to be one day before Halloween… bummer.
For the procedure (I’m not going into too much detail), they make a small cut in the middle of my chest to get through both the skin and my chest plate to operate on the heart. Then they hook my heart and lungs up to a machine called “Cardiopulmonary Bypass Machine” which acts as both my heart and lungs regulating the oxygen throughout my body while my heart is stopped.
Once that’s under control, they replace my aortic valve with another from a pig. Yes that’s right! A PIG:-)
Knowing about this operation the past few weeks didn’t really excite me to do a lot of things. I was so scared the day before, I wrote that last post on my blog almost as a goodbye post. Thank god it is not. So here are some photos through my days of recovery in the hospital. The surgery was last Friday and I got home from the hospital by Tuesday. The main focus of my recovery now is the chest plate. I’m not allowed to lift more then 5 pounds for the next 6-8 weeks because more then that could break my chest plate open and then surgery starts all over again. Thank you to you all that wrote me personal messages and thanks to my friends and family for all the support. All of your messages kept me positive or focused on a speedy recovery.
-colt
PS Love Life
My brother Cody looking over me. It was a very emotional day for everyone in my family. I don’t think there wasn’t one Cannon that came in that I didn’t tear up looking at. 
Another angle with me still sedated. Only this one you can see the tubes around my stomach draining the blood from my lungs.
A good shot of where the docs had to go into my chest to fix my heart. That cut is now the pain I'll be feeling for the next 4-6 weeks.
I couldn't really talk when I was in the hospital so I thought a thumbs up was appropriate to tell people I was good to go home:-)
