Anthony's Journal

Doran Herritt  Maybe some policies that don't require med checks, like through AAA. $28k is ridiculous. You could invest that and have a tidy some in a few years. Another option would b through work. Many big companies offer life insurance. Not sure you'll get 1.5m unless your an exec.
I have always taken the approach that I'm not making my wife's next husband rich. Just enough to cover the bills for a few years until she can get on her feet without me. My two cents. Take care. Drn

Anthony Lupo  Thanks Buddy. I am self employed and yes I tease the wife about being the richest guy in the ground all of the time.

sa cont  Its been 7 months since my surgery, and I have gained almost all my weight back. Being back to work, does not leave much time nor energy to do a lot of walking I was doing postop. Kept the weight off for about 4 months maybe about 10 lbs. Than life got in the way. I am trying to loose it in a healthy manor now.

Enrique K  You can always change your lifestyle. Start exercising and eating healthy you will loose the pounds in a heartbeat. If you are hungry at night eat and apple, if you want to snack almonds with no salt. Eat a lot of protein and forget the fried foods at all costs.

Terrie Syvertsen  This note is to Anthony Lupo- Hi Anthony. I also had my surgery a year and 3 months ago. I wanted to address your comment that "there is no excuse for any of us on this website to be overweight. I think that you need to realize that people enter into their surgeries(or are about to) not at their ideal weight and it stands to reason upon exiting the hospital it is probably going to be more of a challenge and hard work and concentration on focusing on making healthier changes to better the weight issue. You have to acknowledge their are people with other health issues(I am one) who have a more difficult time with their weight and believe me when you are entering surgery the last thing you want on your mind is a guilt trip of weight as the valves are In trouble and your focus is on surviving surgery and using your second chance to re-direct weight issues at a more opportune time. If you want to punish yourself for your weight you have the right to but I hope you will go easier on yourself and continue to do what you can to make whatever changes you can to get your weight where you are happy with yourself. I don't, and I don't know of any of us wanting to add weight to our healing bodies but it happens and it is up to us to decide how we want to tackle this issue by encouraging ourselves and others to do all we can do to take this newly mended heart and do all we can to live with it by eating, exercising and living conscious of keeping the body mind and spirit in the best shape we possibly can. Good luck to you with your weight and continued Happy Living.

Karen Pineda  Congratulations on making it a year and 9 months and feeling great. I think that is what we all hope our outcome would be. To feel great after such a major life changing surgery is a huge accomplishment and something to feel good about. If you are unhappy about the weight then that is something you can work on for yourself if you have a goal weight that you prefer.

That being said, I don't think it's fair to say that there is no excuse for anyone on this site to be overweight. People gain weight for many reasons, some of which are not so easy to overcome. Some people have multiple health problems, take several medications, are immobile and for many reasons, might have extra pounds on their bodies as a result. I don't think anyone in those situations are happy about it and they probably stress about their weight most of the time. The last thing anyone in that situation needs while battling health problems is to feel like they are doing something wrong because they are overweight and start beating themselves up over it even more than they might already be doing.

That being said, I do wish you luck as you continue your post op journey. Embrace the fact that you received such a wonderful gift of a fully functioning heart and enjoy life. Congrats on the great recovery thus far.

  I work for a large agency and I am guaranteed my salary in life insurance, but was refused insurance at even double my salary and I haven't had heart valve replacement yet! Good luck!

Anthony Lupo  Glad you have some guaranteed. I have some whole life and I just found out that my term policy is convertible for life at a rate of $1866/year per $100,000 in coverage. So if you have a term policy you may want to see if it convertible for life. This may be good info for anyone on the site. I will post it.