My Encounters with the Virgin Mary, Alcohol Abuse, a Widow Maker Heart Attack, and Open Heart Surgery and Recovery - 2017

Introduction

The Experience Of A Lifetime is my story about my encounters with the Virgin Mary that changed my life, my alcohol abuse, and a widow maker heart attack.  It is also collectively just what it says, the experience of a lifetime, and I am fortunate to have lived it.   In 2012, I had a number of spiritual experiences involving the Virgin Mary that were beyond my imagination and that have changed my life and outlook forever.  In June of 2017, I had a “widow maker” heart attack where my LAD (Left Anterior Descending – the big artery that supplies blood to the heart) artery was 98 % closed and I was gone (or dead) for 20 minutes.  In August of 2017 I had open heart bypass surgery to correct the problem exposed by the heart attack.  This is an account of the experiences I went through and and the problems that I encountered and conquered that came with the heart attack and open heart surgery.  The spiritual experiences are mentioned because they carried me through recovery and I know if i hadn’t had them, I would not have recovered with the success that I have.  Neither would I have had the nearly carefree attitude and certainly wouldn’t have enjoyed the experience as much as I did (I know that sounds odd).

Note:  All material on this web page and the experiences documented are my personal experiences and are the absolute truth and have been described to the best of my abilities.    Although some of the content of the topics may seem to be false, none of anything presented here is.  All our my personal exerpiences and  have been laid out for the reader to get a glimpse of what it was like for me to have “The Experience Of A Lifetime”.

Spiritual Experiences With The Virgin Mary Beginning In 2012

There were events that I experienced in 2012 that played a major part in the heart attack and the recovery that I will try to describe as best that I can and the effect they have had on these two heart events. To be honest, the events of 2012 were much more difficult for me to endure than the heart attack and the heart surgery event. These events of 2012 have caused everything to change, including the way I look at things, the way I view and feel about other people, the way I view and feel about spiritual and heavenly things. I never feel like I am living everyday life in isolation anymore. I always feel like I have a toe in the spiritual world and that they are close by. These are the most incredible and important spiritual experiences that I have ever had. They were not planned. There was no hint at them coming. I didn’t ask for them. They were just a gift and I can’t guarantee that another person will have them if they do the exact same things I did. Just having knowledge of these experiences has been a real anchor for me.

How It Started – The Holy Rosary

One day I begin to pray the Holy Rosary. In the beginning, I had to lay it out and read it from start to finish because I was not used to it. And it was long. Real long. Every morning I would get up at five and pray it. It takes about 45 minutes for me to get through it. I couldn’t even believe I was doing this because I didn’t have any religious interests at the time, certainly no interest in daily prayer. I wasn’t reading the Bible or praying daily or anything like that. But I never stopped praying the Holy Rosary and I never skipped a day. After about a week, everything changed. Everything. Like Life changed.

Floral Odor

I got in the shower one morning after the praying the Rosary to get ready for work and when I got out, the room was filled with the most powerful floral smell. It engulfed me. I use Ivory soap to wash with and there is no odor to it so I knew that wasn’t causing the smell. The next two thoughts came and the first one was “I have never smelled anything like this before and being 57 I have smelled most everything there is in this corner of the world.” And the second was “This is supernatural” and the hairs on my neck stood up. These two thoughts came from me. I had never experienced anything like this before. I left the room, came back and the smell was gone. Unbelievable, it was. If their (those in the spiritual realm assigned to the Charles Rogers project) goal was to get my attention, then they (those in the spiritual realm assigned to the Charles Rogers project) had achieved that in a split second. I really didn’t know what to do at this point except try to look up this experience to see if any one else had it or anything like it. I collected myself and I started researching because I didn’t know what else to do. I found a few articles of information , but not many, that said this was a spiritual gift (or grace), that some people receive.  They are associated with The Blessed Virgin Mary.

Revelations

Definition of the word revelation – “something revealed or disclosed , especially a striking disclosure, as of something not before realized”.

In my case, revelations came with great intensity and excitement. These may seem trivial because most people are aware of them and have heard them a gazillion times before.  Receiving them from an outside source makes them new and makes them divine to the receiver.  Some of the ones I had are described below.

Revelation 1 – prayer needs to be said daily and the Rosary was the prayer that I was to use.

This first experience was very intense and like I said before I had very little interest in prayer until this happened.  My prayer life got born again.  It was like I had found the greatest treasure ever. The excitement and intensity was akin to what you would experience if you won the lottery and it came from an external source. That is really the only way to describe this. Prayer became the most important daily event and a top priority for me. Everyday at 5 am, at the start of the day, I would do this, not at the end of the day and this is important. For example, if I had a message to give another person and the message was going to affect their entire day, why would I wait until night to give the message to that person and call them when I was half asleep like I used to do right before sleep? Why would I do that? Because I was not really very serious about it to start with.

Revelation 2 – Parable of The Hidden Treasure

The parable of the hidden treasure goes like this. “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field; which a man found, and hid; and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” Same as the previous revelation with a lot of excitement and intensity. It was revealed to me that the treasures of this world are really not love of money, power and reputation, but spiritual truths that are found in the scriptures themselves that applied to one’s life will produce good things. As Jim Rohn (a motivational speaker who is since deceased) once put it, “Things don’t make a person happy, what a person becomes is what makes that person happy”.

Revelation 3 – Jesus And The Apostles

The most important people to have ever lived. It was revealed to me the universal position of Jesus and his disciples. Jesus himself is by far the greatest influence on Western Civilization. People will argue the point but it is true. One of the reasons one cannot see this is because Christianity  (which includes bible study, near death experiences, apparitions, how we conduct our day, etc in my opinion) is not part of our decision making process and rarely ever part of our thinking – unless there is a crisis (which is often labeled “An Act Of God” which is usually something that cannot be explained that is not good). We really have never sat down and figured out who this guy Jesus really is.

Revelation 4 – The Blessed Virgin And What She Has Done

The blessed virgin actually made the decision that started all of this. She could have easily said “no I will not do this.” But that wasn’t the case, and that single decision has effected all of us and all of western civilization for 2000 plus years. All of us. This revelation came at a memorial for my father who died in 2013, as Silent Night was being sung (and no I wasn’t sad). It was a real eye opener.

Spiritual Light

What I call “spiritual light” was turned on. This experience was nothing short of incredible. I can only described this as a spiritual gift granted that changed a lot of my views, a lot of my beliefs, how I view other people and it happened instantly – like in the snap of a finger. Everything changed that quick. All of my interests after this point revolved around spiritual things. And I could not get enough it. The desire to know truth was like a thirst that never gets quenched (just like the scriptures say). This was incredible. I spent literally weekends of time researching spiritual topics beginning with biblical archaeology and later with mystical messages being given today. I was interested in everything Christian, protestant and catholic it doesn’t matter to me, and all of this did not originate with me and the best way to describe it is that it was influenced from an outside source.

Answered Prayer

In the rosary there is a place where a request is made and my requests soon became questions that I wanted to know the answers to. I quickly learned that when I asked questions that pertained to spiritual things that applied to me that I didn’t know, I got answers and usually the next day. When I asked questions that did not pertain to spiritual matters or did not apply to me, they went unanswered. It got to the point where I just about knew I would get an answer depending on the question. This began to make a lot of sense. Heaven is very interested in our spiritual development and education.

The Presence

With all of this came a presence. And the presence stayed for roughly 6 weeks. I was never alone. It didn’t matter what I was doing or what my day entailed, it was always there all of my waking hours. This was shocking. Really shocking. It rocked my world completely. I have always read biblical scriptures and believed that they are real are real and true, but that is not the same as being shown these things are real by a spiritual presence. An inner struggle was beginning to take place for me and this presence was with me as I went through this Struggle.

The Struggle

There was an inner struggle for me that came along with all of these experiences. And the struggle was summed up in the question “Is this real?” Is all of this that I am experiencing real, I would ask myself. In the beginning, I could not accept that this was true. It just couldn’t be. The struggle was there day after day after day, beginning in the morning and going until the night and it never stopped. “Is this real?” That was the question of all questions I was asking myself. What was real in the morning when I got up became questionable at night. It seemed like it was never going to end. This went on for the entire 6 weeks. Day after day and it got old. Until I began to see that it was in fact true, the struggle never left. I remember walking across my backyard saying “Why don’t y’all get lost?”, beer and smokes in hand, speaking to the presence because I didn’t want to participate in this any longer and I wanted a break from it only to later to come back to it because I was compelled to do so. I couldn’t give up, or quit, or anything like that. I had to struggle on. And it began to seem like there was no end, but eventually I got stronger and eventually this daily grind came to an end. In a nutshell, I was being asked to grow up spiritually in my opinion. What was left was a faith that was stronger and more sure than ever before. It was an incredible experience.

The Effect Of All This

Although now I cannot always feel a presence everyday, I know they are close by at all times, just like the scriptures say (I will never leave you, I will always be with you, etc). I do not believe that God the father, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, or any of the rest exist any more. I know they do. I Know. One of the differences between today and the way things used to be for me is that I now know that these things are true. It is quite a shocking experience when you find out that what you really thought was truth but couldn’t prove, presents itself to you in such an undeniable fashion that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is real. As far as a time frame for all of the above to take place, it took about 3 years for all of that to happen.

Heart Attack

 A Sunday Afternoon

 June 11, 2017 is a day I will never forget.  It was nice and sunny so I went to play golf with a friend of mine, my usual Sunday afternoon activity.  I live a block from the golf course and there are no tee times needed.  We teed off and as I was driving the cart down a hill, everything went black like going to sleep, just like that, in a split second.  No pain.  No warning.  No nothing.  Like fainting maybe, although I have never experienced that.  The last thing that I remember was going down the hill and that was it.  My friend has since shown me exactly where all of this occurred and we hadn’t gotten very far, only one shot into the round.  I had a widow maker heart attack.  My LAD was 98% closed off.  Being unconscious, my friend hit me to wake me up but I never came to.  A couple of months later, I asked him if he knew what was actually going on and he said no but he knew something was wrong.  So he held me in place (I was in the driver’s seat) and drove us to the clubhouse and started yelling out for someone who might know CPR.

CPR

Two young adults with 3 children just happened to have joined the swimming pool (which was adjacent to the clubhouse) five minutes before so they could take their children swimming.  He is a military veteran and was a medic in Afghanistan and is now working for EMS and is 6’7″ tall and 280 lbs.  His wife knew CPR also.  They pulled me out of the cart and put me on the cement and started working on me.  My friend was looking on the entire time.  He told me that my sternum was being pushed to the ground.  I don’t know.  But I imagine that there was quite a crowd by now standing around watching the action going on.  I can also imagine the silence and the air filled with seriousness of the situation.  In the meantime, 911 had been called and it took a few minutes for it to get there all the while they were working on me.  When the ambulance arrived, the EMS workers asked if they needed to relieve the husband and wife performing the CPR and they said no that they had a rhythm and wanted to continue.  At some point, I was loaded into the ambulance and off to the hospital we went.  My friend left to go tell my wife and son the news and my wife said that he was as white as a sheet.  They immediately headed to the hospital ten miles away. 

I was told by different people that I had Electrical Cardioversion (defib with the paddles) performed at least once and as many as three times.  I don’t know the exact number.  All I know is when my wife saw me she said my skin was grey.

          Ventilation

After arriving at the hospital, they had to put me on ventilation because I could not breath properly for myself.  One of the technicians told my wife that when people are put on a ventilator, if there is no struggle, it doesn’t look good for that person, there is no resistance and there is a good chance that person is headed to another world (they are probably going to die). I really believe that the decision for me to not leave this world for whatever reason had already been made from above (I am a firm believer in the afterlife, have watched hundreds of near death experience videos and have a lot of books on the subject, and I believe that the spiritual world governs the physical world and can intervene at will).  I believe it was already decided that I was here to stay because it took six of them to hold me down to get the vent in, or so my wife was told.  I was in there somewhere (my spirit was at home in the body) and I wasn’t getting out.

          Catheter Insertion (Bleeding That Wouldn’t Stop)

In order to tell what was really going on in the heart, the medical staff had to do a heart catheter.  That is where they insert a catheter into your heart and release dye into the arteries so they can see the blood flow or clogs or whatever they want to see.  They insert it into a vein in the leg and run it up to the heart.  When they made the incision to put the catheter in, the bleeding from the incision wouldn’t stop.  I know exactly why this was.  It was because of all the Goodys that I used to take (about 2 per day) and it thinned my blood so bad it wouldn’t clog.  They had to give me a blood transfusion because my blood levels were dropping.  It took a while but the bleeding finally stopped.  I was told what a mess there was left behind and that there was blood everywhere even on the floor.  I wish I had a picture of that one to share.

2 Percent Survival Rate

When I awoke for the first time, I don’t remember the surroundings or anything.  Really, I don’t remember hardly anything related to the 5 days I stayed in the hospital after the heart attack, including the people (probably due to the medication I had been given – I was told I was as mean as a snake).   I do remember the cardiologist talking to me.  He made sure that I understood the seriousness of all of this because he told me twice.  “Mr. Rogers you are very fortunate to have survived.  You have a two percent survival rate.”  He came back later and said “Mr. Rogers you are very fortunate to have survived.  You have two percent survival rate.”  Incredible that I had lived.  I had always thought I was invincible, and I still do even after 57 years.  If anyone was going to get sick and be in the hospital for an extended period of time, I always knew that it was not going to be me.  I would do a lot of high cardio training to keep proving to myself that I was healthy and that I was beyond all of that.  Nevertheless, things don’t always work out the way we think they will.  The control we believe we have over our lives is really not as much as we think.

Two percent survival rate, huh?  That means if ninety nine other people and I went into a room, only me and one other person would walk out.  I have been told so many times that I am a miracle by healthcare professionals, that it isn’t funny.  Do I believe in miracles?  Absolutely.  I see one every morning when I look in the mirror.  

I won

One of the first very strong feelings about the experience I had was that I had beat death.  This was kind a of human experience thing.  To me this was a ridiculous thing for one to think, but i actually had this thought.  But I didn’t really beat it, the people performing the CPR did.  If they had not been there, I would not be here today.   I am grateful beyond belief. 

Direction

          I also had strong feelings about what happened to me while I was unconscious.  It was kind of like a dream that you have that you can’t remember but you can still feel.  While I never saw the light, I did feel I was in a position where there were two directions I could go.  One direction was up and the other was down.  The people (I call them people or spirits) I was supposed to be with were up.  But I never actually moved in that direction.  I am a firm believer that the destination being up or down is decided while you are in this life and you make that decision while you are here.  A part of me wants to believe that this life is actually a part of the vetting process that had to be started when the angles fell from heaven in rebellion against God (as mentioned in Isaiah 14) eons ago but I don’t know that for sure.  

Almost Getting To Visit

          Beginning in 2012, I had a number of spiritual experiences that effected me greatly.  They were very real and so began the process of changing my life forever.  The experiences lasted for eight weeks and there was a presence always with me everywhere I went.  I mentioned the experiences earlier, and  my soul wanted to be among those involved in the experiences and this was very intense.  God the father, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, those who led me through the spiritual experiences a few years earlier, I wanted to see them.  I could feel this very strongly.  But it was not to be.  I never saw The Light that some people who die and return experience.  But there was strong desire to see it and that would have been a most incredible experience.  I’ll have to wait on that one.

Five Days To One Month

          At the end of of five days, my hospital stay was over.  All of the dire medical situations had ended and been solved, at least temporarily.  They had ballooned my LAD artery open.  It was time to leave.  My cardiologist said “go home and live your life like you normally would.”  I took that literally.  An appointment had been made for me to start rehab and my wife made the first few visits with me after the initial meeting with my nurse.  People were there who had heart problems and they wanted to share their experiences with us.  Little did I know at that point, a heart attack to people who have had one is a big, big deal as it is a big, big deal to me now.  It is a life changing experience that so far has never gone away, just like the spiritual experiences I had started in 2012, every new day that begins, they are there.  I wake up with them, they are the first thing I think of at the beginning of the day.  They are on my mind all day long.  And lastly, before I go to sleep I think about them.  I wake the next morning and the process starts all over again.  I took my rehab seriously and had the attitude that I would finish without missing a single visit.  I have held true on that and I have two weeks to go to finish rehab and I haven’t missed a visit yet.  About a week after coming home from the hospital from the heart attack, I started walking daily with a distance of .6 miles and  I attended rehab every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I was actually uncomfortable at first doing any kind of exercising because of the negative thoughts that I had of having the heart attack reoccur, and I assume everyone has who has had one, because they don’t want to put themselves in a position where they are going to fall out with no one around to help them.  If I did fall out, there would be no one there for me.  I went any way.

Mental Paralysis

          Mental paralysis is term I used to describe when I couldn’t be active because I was afraid that I might have another heart attack or maybe something worse.  I think this was a form of depression really.  Day after day I would do nothing because I really didn’t know what to do due to the situation I was in.  I was a little afraid, and afraid is something I don’t get very often. I sat around day after day letting time pass. I would think “You better not do this.  You better not do that.” until I got so sick and tired of it.  I got sick and tired of doing nothing day after day.  I got tired of being afraid and being inactive. 

The Decision To Be Me At 57

I have always been an active person whose ideas are big and works very hard to make the ideas come true.  The phrase “It can’t be done” is not part of my vocabulary.  Looking for reasons to fail is not part of my outlook.  The spirit that I have every day in life is one of accomplishment.  This website is a good example of what I am trying to say.  I have never built a website before and I really don’t know how they work.  Just because my profession is that of a programmer people would think I should be able to do this.  Not true.  I have also never ever written an article for publishing and never even entertained the thought of doing so.  My strengths are not in expressing my ideas on paper.  But I am putting a lot of time into learning how to do this because I really want to tell my story.  It seems to me like every time I turn around, I am trying to accomplish something that I don’t really know how to do. 

          I began to realize that the mental paralysis and the laying around and doing absolutely nothing but watching TV all day on the couch, I was traveling on a road to no where.  We are given only so much time here and my time needed to be used in a much more productive manner than I was using it.  I had to make a decision.  Was I going to live afraid and passive focusing on the fact that I could die again, or was I going to live aggressively and be challenged daily.  Was I going to get in superior shape for a 57 year old man?  Was I going to work hard at the job I have been given and be successful again?  Was I going to run (figure of speech) hard and rest hard?  Or was I going to be afraid?  What if I did die after a second heart attack?  At least there would be an example for others to follow on how to get more out of the time they had been given.

          I decided to live the active, aggressive lifestyle and I decided that there would no turning back even if death came calling.  That was my commitment to me.  And at this point, right here, all recovery started.  It started with a decision and a commitment like most everything in life does.

          My first health related decision was to get back in the best physical shape that I could.  I had just had a big heart attack.  So the first step for me was getting flexible – stretching.  Initially, I could only bend over and go down to where my finger tips were a five inches above my ankles when trying to touch my toes.  I found a stretching program consisting of about 15 different stretches and I started doing it 3 times per day.  After about a week, I could definately see some improvement.  I realized I was on the road to recovery because I had found something to succeed at involving improving my health.

Heart Attack Recovery

Rest, Food and Exercise

          There are three things necessary for a recovery from heart surgery that I got from Gretta VS off of youtube and it helped tremendously because her husband had open heart surgery and she made videos telling people what they did.  They are rest, food and exercise. 

Rest

          Rest was so important.  I remember, I would sleep half of the day and all night when I first came home.  I was probably only awake maybe 9 hours per day at the most.  My body was so tired from the stress and sickness that when it deemed it was time for sleep and rest, we slept and rested.  I would sleep all afternoon and then get ready for night sleep right after dusk (maybe at around 7:30 or so).    This lasted only a short while, maybe a week or two before things began to improve. 

Food

          Eating was also important.  It wasn’t as important to me to eat be on a good diet as it was to eat period.  When I was in the hospital, I used to complain to the doctor that if the hospital was serious about people healing, they would feed their patients larger portions of food and I still believe that to be true.  High content proteins and carbohydrates is what I ate.  Eggs, potatoes, oven roasted chicken breasts, salads was the kind of stuff I was eating.  I also had a craving for vanilla milk shakes and I ate them too.

Exercise (Rehab)

          Exercise was the last ingredient of the three big items for a good recovery.  I started off walking .6 miles everyday and I attended rehab 3 days per week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  It was hard at first and I would have to take a nap after each .6 mile walk.  I kept after it and it improved greatly in a short period of time. 

          A word on Rehab.  I would do it every time if I had to do it all over again.  The people there were great and my nurses were great also.  It is a place you can go to start to exercise and be watched in case something happens; it provides that extra insurance that success will be obtained.  I really think it should be mandatory.  

Cardiologist Visit One

          I had a scheduled cardiologist visit after the heart attack and it was the first office visit for me.  I went in and the Dr. was already in the office and I really didn’t know what to say to him.  He was looking at a computer with his back turned toward me and just to get the conversation going I said “Is there any damage?”  He said “None.”  Another real miracle.  No heart damage.  I couldn’t believe it.  This blew me away.  I had been out for 20 minutes no pulse, no breathing, no nothing.  I knew at this point that all I had to do was get back in shape and I would be fine and I knew how to do that.  When I left his office, the plan was to have open heart surgery in two months to repair the LAD that had been closed off to less than 3 % flow.  The reason for the two month delay was so I could gain strength for the surgery because he told me that if the surgery was performed right after the attack, recovery time would be a lot longer because I was so weak and that some undesirable things might occur. 

Resumed Work Full Time for 2 weeks

          I resumed working full time around mid July but it took a while to get adjusted to the load of working 8 hours per day.  I wasn’t used to this and I had to start going for only 1/2 days.  When I came home for the day, there would be a 5 hour nap because I was exhausted.  Slowly thing improved.  Soon I was up to full days post heart attack and pre heart surgery.  My confidence was high.

Bike Riding

          I went back to riding my bike.  The looks I got from the neighbors I would pass as I did this, amazed me.  Three weeks before, I had a heart attack, in the hospital for 5 days and a ballooned artery, and I was out doing this?  I know people thought that the end was coming soon for me because I didn’t have good sense.  But the Dr. told me to do this and when I made up my mind to start riding again I asked my wife to call his office and ask him if I could do this and she did.  And they said sure, if I felt like it.  I have a 24 speed racing bike and pre heart problems I could ride 10 miles in about 35 minutes, hills and stop signs included.  Now I was down to 3 miles in 12 minutes but at least I was doing it and I was getting winded a little (a positive thing)

Angina Returns (around 08/01)

          After the second 3 mile bike trip, I began to get the angina (temporary lack of oxygen to the heart muscle which causes chest pain and discomfort) again.  This happened twice.  In order to get the angina to go away, all I had to do was rest a few minutes and everything would return to normal so I never really got too worried about it.  We made the decision for another cardiologist visit to see what the problem was because I could tell from the angina that things were changing for the worse.

Cardiologist Visit Two

          I quit with the bike and made an appointment for a nuclear stress test again (the first stress test was in April and I was on the tread mill for 13 minutes at full incline – I was proud of that).  This time, the results were less than desirable (3 minutes at best).  Surgery was scheduled for 08/16, the next day.  

The humorous side of things

          I would occasionally look back on the entire event so far from beginning (06/11/2017) to end (08/15/2017) and I would think about how this was not something I would have imagined having to go through at any time in my life.  I would laugh because, as crazy as this may sound, I actually enjoyed this as much as any one could possibly enjoy a heart attack and open heart surgery.  It has changed my entire life outlook.  You would have thunk my attitude would have been one of being put out with the whole ordeal but surprisingly it wasn’t.  I actually enjoyed this.  I didn’t have any fear at all.  None.  I knew I was being taken care from above because of the events that had taken place over the last 2 months.  And I knew I was being taken care of from below from all of the great nurses and doctors I had.  I didn’t worry about it, I didn’t fear it.  I could not get off of this train if I wanted to.  So I was along for the ride and that was my attitude.

Open Heart Surgery

No Depression

          My attitude pre-surgery was pretty good in my opinion.  At the rehab that I attend, there are volunteers who, in the past, have had heart attacks, stints put in and open heart surgery.  They would help you in any way they can.  So I would ask them questions about surgery and how to go about getting the best results from it controlling only the things that I could control.  Attitude was at the top of the list.  You need to have a good attitude and not be focused on a negative outcome even though one might occur.  They told me this.  And they also told me that my attitude was good and how I had handled myself during all of this so far,  was the proper way to do it.  Post heart attack I was happy and content.  I smiled a lot and I joked around about it a lot.  I focused on my day at hand, never on where I wanted to be in three months or anything like that and that helped a lot also.  I always felt like I was living in the moment just trying to get through the current day meeting the goals for that day only.  When I awoke in the morning, the new day and goals for it and what I was going to accomplish started then, not the day before or week before and this helped a lot also.  Every day was new, not a continuation of the previous one.  So when I went in for surgery, I was focused on the nurses and people that worked there and the preparation and what had to be done in order to get me ready for this big event because it was all new.     

Preparation

          Most all of my personal preparation for this surgery was mental.  Again, I had been given advice from the volunteers at rehab as to how important attitude was toward surgery.  Everything I had been told about having a good attitude I was already doing.  I was not afraid (people around me asked about that a lot … if I was afraid).  I was joking around a lot, probably too much.  There was absolutely no fear at all about living, dying or not being able to live life as I always have.  I just went with the journey living in the moment, which I will have to admit, when my daily scheduled included nothing needing to be done it is a lot easier to live in the moment.      

Knowing Success Was On The Way

          Sometimes, we just know, and I just knew that this was going to be successful. I just knew it. To me, surgery and recovery was just a process of going through the necessary steps in order to get home. That was the goal and initially it seemed far away. To counter this, I focused on my nurses and getting to know them and I watched them do their jobs. I told myself when I got the surgery prep, that I was going to find out about some of these people and when I left I would know something about them. After all, if I didn’t make through the surgery, (and there was a person who died right after surgery while I was in the hospital) I wanted to some day see some of these people again who were working on me. I asked them a lot of questions about their personal and professional lives and I also asked questions about the preparation of me for surgery and why they did things the way they did. It was kind of like a field trip to me. I learned a lot and they taught me well.

Pain

          The pain from the open heart surgery was minimal compared to pain caused by the CPR.  After the heart attack, I would not let anyone touch me in the chest area for at least 5 weeks because the pain was so bad.  There were no broken bones or bruising because there was no discoloration.  But the tissue in between the ribs was so sore to the slightest touch and it took about 5 weeks to heal.  I quit taking pain medicine after one day after the surgery and after four days I could feel the healing start.      

First Walk After Surgery

          When in recovery from surgery, the staff tries to get you up and moving around as soon as possible so they try to get you to walk the floor.  The first time I did this after the surgery was very difficult.  If this exposed anything, it was how weak and tired I was as I could barely make it around the floor.  After three days I was up and about with no assistance at all and no IV’s.  I could feel the healing already happening because the pain from the incision was getting less and less.  I quit taking pain medicine after 1 day

The Last Night

          This was awful.  Couldn’t sleep at all and didn’t.  I was dirty and hot and I had all of this sticky stuff on me that was from surgery.  I watched the clock all night long.  I thought I would never get out of that place.  The doctor who was supposed to release me was supposed to be there close to 9:00.  He got there at 11:30.  We probably left around 12:30.  All I could focus on was going home and getting a shower in my own bathroom and getting clean.

Open Heart Surgery Recovery

The First Shower Was The Greatest Challenge Of All

          This was the worst experience of the whole heart attack ordeal.  I was so weak but I didn’t realize how weak I was until I got in the shower.  I wanted to take a shower in my own bathroom so bad that I waited the last night until I got home.  Shortly after I started, I knew there was a good chance that I was going to collapse and I knew if I did that I would not be able to get up.  That is how weak I was.  I had to hold on to the handle in the shower to keep from falling down I was so weak.  I could hardly wash my hair but I did half way and my whole body just wanted to collapse and lay down and it felt so heavy.  I just wanted to die.  I really did.  But I kept thinking and telling myself that I was not going to die, I was going to fight this. I had come too far and everything was pointing toward me living, “just hang on to the railing and keep cleaning myself” is all I could think of.  I could hardly step over the side of the bathtub to get out because I was so tired.  I managed to get dried off and I put on my sweat pants and sweat shirt (this took a while) and got in the bed and under the covers and didn’t move for four or five hours and slept.  After I awoke, even though I felt 100% better, the recovery process was just beginning.

Post Surgery

          The post surgery rest, food, and exercise was the same as pre-surgery as I was back to the beginning.  I had to start completely over for a second time.  I had a great advantage this time around.  Experience.  I knew what was coming, I knew what I had to do, and I actually came up with a 3 week plan involving rest, diet, and exercise.  I wanted a recovery that was as quick as possible. I had three weeks to get it done.  That’s when I had an appointment with the surgeon.

Rest

          When I wasn’t exercising or eating I was resting.  I would get in my morning walk and then rest for 3 hours.  Although it was boring, I made progress quickly. I wasn’t tired all of the time any more, but I had to make a point of resting even if I didn’t want to do it.  I had been living on the go, ignoring rest, for years.  Always going.  Never resting.  

Food

          My diet was not very heart friendly at first.  I just ate to get nutrition.  Four times per day; two protein meals and two carbohydrate meals.  And also once per day I would drink 6 tables spoons of low fat cottage cheese mixed with 3 tables spoons of Barlean’s cold pressed flaxseed oil, 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey, and about 8 ounces of water blended.  Flaxseed oil was recommended from the nutritionist as a good source of fats I had talked to at Rehab.  

Exercise

          I had to start over with exercise again from scratch.  .6 Mile walks every morning.  I slowly increased based on what I could handle.  Rarely did I push it to the limit although sometimes I did and I could feel that I was over exercising somewhat.  I made it a rule that I would exercise doing only what I could do comfortably.  

Surgeon Visit

          Three weeks after the surgery I had an appointment with the surgeon who performed the open heart surgery.  We had to fill out some paperwork because this was my initial visit so his nurse asked me a lot of questions concerning family history like they always do.  Then she started looking over the other material that they had on file on me and said “Wow, you’re a miracle, Mr. Rogers”.  I said “Really?”.  She said “Yes, people dont survive what you have been through”.  Then the surgeon came in and looked at the incision and said I that was healed enough that I could start doing anything I wanted.  I asked if I could start back at rehab and he said yes.  All I had been doing, the exercising, resting and diet had paid off.  I was on my way.  What a great day this was.

Exercise

          I contacted my rehab nurse and asked her when I could start back and they reply was on the next Monday.  I don’t know if other people initiate starting rehab again but I did.  I was ready to get started because I knew I was going to be a success.  This is when the two a days started.  Exercise in the morning and exercising at night (the night consisted of a 3 mile walk of which my wife made when she had a chance).            

Cardiologist Visit

          My last visit to the cardiologist was around 2 weeks after the surgeon’s visit.  I did as much physical work as I could do in between these 2 visits.  And at the cardiologist’s office we decided I would go back to work on the 27th of September and come back for a checkup in six months and that was pretty much it.

My Wife’s Experience

I was fortunate to have met my husband around Christmas time 32 years ago.  We have been married for 29 1/2 years and I know without a doubt I have been blessed.  The events that unfold starting on the afternoon of June 11, 2017have had a profound impact on both of our lives.  My husband suffered a massive heart attack on the golf course that beautiful Sunday afternoon.It was nothing short of a miracle that his life was  spared with no heart damage or brain damage even after being resuscitated for 20 minutes prior to the ambulance arriving.

Seeing my husband’s friend standing at my back door literally white as a sheet is a picture my mind will never forget.  As he stood there trying to tell me what had happened and how my husband was being transported to the hospital by ambulance … time seemed to stand still.  I called to my son upstairs and broke the news to him and we both quickly gathered our things and got in the car to make the trip to the ER, on the way calling my daughter and son-in-law as they were in Raleigh.  Before I could hang up they quickly responded we are on our way and we will be there as soon as possible.  My daughter, who was an ICU trauma nurse at the time, already knew in her mind the seriousness of what I was telling her and the low percentage of survival when someone codes for 20 minutes outside of the hospital setting.  Basically, she didn’t think her dad would still be alive when she arrived from Raleigh.

My son and I arrive at the ER and are greeted by the cardiologist that just happened to be in the ER that afternoon.  He tells me how serious things are and that they needed to do a heart cath immediately.  So he tells us that the emergency cath team has 20 minutes to get to the hospital and we would know more once the procedure was done.  Afterwards, he led me down the hall to see my husband who was ice cold to the touch and completely gray in color.  Another picture my mind will never forget!  The catheter team arrives and we are moved from the ER to the cath lab.  The cardiologist comes out and takes me and my son to the cath lab and shows us the beast.  A blockage of 98% in the main LAD artery. This type of clot is referred to as the “widow maker”.  The blockage is located in the bend of the artery so a stent is out of the question – only hope is to balloon the artery open to buy time and hopefully allow my husband time to recover so he can prepare for open heart surgery at a later date.  So we move upstairs to CCU where my husband remained on the ventilator for 2 days.  During this time I had prayed to God many times to protect him and heal him.  I knew God was in control and all through the tears, fear, and worry I had an overwhelming sense of peace and calm which can only be explained  by  a true sense of God’s presence during this time.  Somehow, in the back of my mind, I knew he was going to be ok.  I also felt the prayers that were being sent by family, friends,  neighbors, ministers, and priests.  Somehow he was going to make it and come through this ok.

By the grace of God, my husband walked out of that hospital on Friday morning and got in my car to be taken home!  Yes, home – no heart damage – no brain damage – just time to get better – time to rest, recover, and get ready for open heart surgery at a later date.  Praise God!  I am not saying his recovery was easy for him but he is  strong willed  and hard worker so he started the recovery process with a  sense of where he wanted to end up and how he wanted to live his life.  Fast forward a couple of months and he started having chest pains (angina) while riding his bike, so back to the cardiologist we go and another stress test is ordered.  The results of this stress test in August were not favorable, so another heart cath was scheduled followed by open heart surgery the next day.

My husband’s attitude was very positive through all of this and I think he may have even looked forward to the open heart surgery being done so he could recover and get his life back to a new normal.   He came through  the open heart surgery with flying colors.  Had the procedure on Wednesday and was walking out of the hospital on that Saturday.  Remarkable!  Even though he was weak and tired from the surgery he started his rehab slowly from home.  Walking each day to the stop sign and back and gradually going longer distances.  In several weeks he was allowed to start rehab at he fitness center and was well on his way to recovery.  Again his attitude was one to be admired.

I know without a shadow of a doubt that my husband’s strong motivation, perseverance, attitude and strong faith in God and consistent prayer life is what has brought him all of the way through this journey and ready to write the next chapters of his life.  Thanks be to God from whom ALL blessings flow!!