It’s just one week until at 7:30 am Tuesday the 25^th, I will undergo my 3rd heart valve replacement at Keck/USC. Yesterday I woke up feeling nervous of the date crawling forward towards me. I’ve been thinking today of many of my symptoms that will hopefully be gone in a few weeks after the surgery. The thing I hope mostly to be finished with is the anemia. My anemia comes from my blood cells being sliced up when going through a hole/holes on the sides of the mechanical valve. My body can’t replace the blood cells fast enough to keep up with the loss of blood cells. I went to Scripps Hospital in La Jolla two times to have the surgeons there use an arthroscopic procedure to plug the holes, however both times the leaks persisted, or new ones formed, so that didn’t work.  The anemia has caused me to have a real problem breathing whenever I exert myself in any way. It makes for a hard time breathing when lying flat and constantly being fatigued. Not being able to go anywhere the altitude is above 1000 ft and breath decently. Another issue I look forward to being done with is having to take coumadin to thin my blood and dodge the danger of having a stroke. I have taken the coumadin since my first valve replacement in August 2003. The downside of this has been, I bleed and bruise so easily.  This September my car door shut on my back and the bruise went all the way down my back and then to my sides and then to my belly.  Hopefully these and other health issues will be a thing of the past.