Living Simply

The Journey of a Martial Artist, Entrepreneur, Business Consultant, Husband and Father

[alexander-evers]

Honored to have been recognized at the Cowboy 100 Awards this weekend. A big thank you to Spears School of Business - Oklahoma State University for the recognition and for hosting such a first-class event. It was an incredible evening celebrating so many outstanding entrepreneurs and businesses connected to Oklahoma State University.

[alexander-evers]

Today we move back home.

After the wildfire on March 14th, we walked away with what mattered most, our family, but left behind a lifetime of memories. The past year has stretched us, humbled us, and reminded us of what an amazing community and support system we have.

Now, we get to start again. Back in our neighborhood on our same lot. We are incredibly grateful to Homes by Gellenbeck for bringing this home back to life and supporting us through this journey. We’re ready to close this chapter, step into the next, and simply be home again.

[alexander-evers]

Ground breaking on the same spot as our old home.

[alexander-evers]

We're Okay and We're Rebuilding

Hello friends, Sorry it took me so long to write! Thank you so much for the messages, thoughts, and prayers. It means a lot. We want to let you know we’re okay.

Some of you know our home was lost in the wild fires. We’ve been living through the shock, the grief, and uncertainty that comes with it but we’re coming out the other side.

We’re currently renting a home and furniture while we get everything figured out.

We’re rebuilding on the same spot! The land where our old home stood, where our kids were growing up, is where we will build again. We’re about to start framing next week.

It’s wild to look at some of these images. Charred beams, ash covering what used to be floors, twisted metal where our home once was. But I wanted to share them, because it has an impact on us.

One moment I’ll never forget: a few days after, we sifted through the rubble. After a few hours, buried under the debris, we found my wedding ring. It used to be silver but is now blackened by carbon. Yet there it was.

I’ll try to share more updates as the framing, walls, and roof go up. With a lot of help, a lot of faith, and a lot of work ahead. Thanks for Thinking of our family.

[alexander-evers]

Most of you know me as the owner of Family Martial Arts in Edmond and Enid and a stay at home dad in the meantime. However, I am excited to announce that I am the new Director of Business and Entrepreneurial Services at Meridian Tech!

In this position, I will be the director overseeing the Stillwater and Guthrie Business Incubators at Meridian. If you’re unfamiliar, the Business Incubator is a place where startups, or soon to be startups, can lease commercial space (office, culinary, or light manufacturing), get business consulting, conference room access, help with a business plan, get connected with bankers, insurance agents, lawyers, accountants, etc.

The incubator is designed to get startup small businesses to and past the 3 year mark and help them graduate to their own spaces which we can help with as well. We also do startup coaching services for businesses that do not need tenant status but would like help navigating the startup world and are interested in the other services we offer, even if you don’t live in Stillwater or Guthrie!

There are also plenty of other great benefits of being part of the incubator such as networking amongst other small business tenants, tax incentives, use of conference rooms, use of training rooms, etc, and of course, bottomless coffee.

We have business coaches with expertise from product development and sales, hiring and training, packing and shipping of products, to membership/service-based businesses, strong system development, commercial leasing, small business marketing strategy, and finance.

I am still the owner of Family Martial Arts and you will still see me at the studios and teaching like normal! I am very fortunate that Martial Arts in general is an evening activity! I love martial arts and all of the things it taught me and I will continue to use that to build leaders in our communities.

If you or someone you know is currently in the startup phase of their business or is contemplating creating a business, shoot me an email at [email protected] or give me a call [phone] and I’d love to tell you how we can be of assistance!

[alexander-evers]

I SOLD Stillwater Martial Arts

As some of you have heard, and it’s still weird for me to say, I SOLD Stillwater Martial Arts.  Most people I have said this to have been shocked and have many questions, so I will get to answering them.

When did this happen? July 2021

Who owns Stillwater Martial Arts Now?  Craig Nichols (Head Instructor) and Lauren Sneed (After School and Summer Camp Director). This was a wonderful opportunity for them to purchase their first small business and make an even greater impact in our community! Why sell the karate school?!? The short answer is, it was just the right time.  After my emergency heart valve replacement in 2017, I am no longer able to do many parts of the martial arts we teach due to impact restrictions and blood thinners.  However, I am still able to teach Karate and do most parts of Jiujitsu! I still teach a class once a week at SMA, help out with other events, and still train 2-3x per week in Gracie Jiujitsu and Karate. I won’t be stopping martial arts for a very long time, just think of this as a passing of the torch. What about Family Martial Arts? I still own Family Martial Arts in downtown Enid, OK.  Justin Deal (Head Instructor) and Zachary Taylor (After School and Summer Camp Director) run the daily operations!  I am in Enid teaching and helping out generally Wednesdays and Thursdays. What now for me? Danielle and I have no plans to move at this time (Everyone asks this)!  Danielle is currently working at Stillwater Medical Center and going to Nursing School.  Many of you know we just had our first-born child about 6 weeks ago, Carson! He’ll definitely keep us busy.  While Danielle is finishing Nursing School, I’ll be stay at home parenting most of the week and I’ll be in Enid a few days each week  and training at SMA as well. I am still open for private lessons (Karate/Jiujitsu), speaking engagements (Small Business/Leadership Skills), when time permits, and I’m keeping my eyes open for what my future will hold next.  I honestly don’t know what will be next for me or for my family.  I know I will focus more on Family Martial Arts and attempt to reach even more people in the community.  Besides that, do I open a third martial arts school elsewhere, get a regular job, open completely new venture, or all of the above? I have no idea!  Just praying about it and going with the flow.  If you have any ideas let me know! I am incredibly grateful for all of the people with who I was able to interact at SMA.   I’ve made lifetime friends and learned so much about myself, leadership, and business along the way.  I am blessed to have been able to play a part in the lives of the 60+ people I graduated to Black Belt and the thousands of students we’ve had over the last eight years. Thank you all for making my experience so wonderful. I’ll cherish the memories for a lifetime. I’m looking forward to all the lives we can impact in Enid and dreaming big for the future!

[alexander-evers]

November 5th is going to be even more of a day to remember!  Carson Alexander Evers was born and we couldn’t be happier!  Here is him a few weeks later celebrating his first Thanksgiving!

[alexander-evers]

Help Researchers Defeat COVID-19 with your idle Computer Power!

Are you familiar with folding@home?  

They're doing protein folding research primarily on Cancer, Huntingtons, Parkinsons, etc. using idle computing power to brute force research. 

Essentially the way the program works, is you set it and forget it on your computer.  What happens is when you’re computer is idle the cpu and gpu processing power can be used to fold proteins which helps push the needle of biomedical research in these areas. Folding@Home is currently devoting much of their power towards helping develop solutions to our current COVID problem.

I'm hoping to recruit new members to our team (262275) to break our ranking through to under 100k, but you definitely don’t have to join my team!  You can form your own team, or just go solo.   If you have questions please let me know, I’d be more than happy to answer as many as I can. For more:  https://foldingathome.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@home To Join the Team!: 1. Go to https://foldingathome.org/start-folding/ and download the Windows installer

2. Open the installer, select next, then next, express install, next

3. Enter your name and team number! If you want to join my team put in number 262275! You shouldn’t have to create a passkey!

4. Lastly, Set your program to only use IDLE computing power. On the bottom right of your screen, select the arrow showing background programs. Then right click on the F@H colorful icon and select on idle.

Now you’re computer is set up to be eligible to be used for extra computing power for Cancer, Huntingtons, Parkinsons, and Covid research!  Thank you for helping, it takes a village!

[alexander-evers]

We got 1st place Martial Arts Facility for Stillwater as well as Runner up for Best Employer under 100 employees!  I’m so grateful for our incredible families and staff.  Less than a week later we received a Century Martial Arts Gold Excellence Award.  Big thank you to our community and all of the blessings we have to work with.

Stillwater Martial Arts

Alex Evers

[alexander-evers]

The Journey Begins Again

As an instructor, I am always working to better our students.  Whether it's through physical help or mental, the goal is for each student to be a little better than when they walked in.  For most of our students, this results in eventual belt tests and graduations.  As the leader of our studio, it is important that I lead by example and this is important to keep in mind as I begin the journey towards my next black belt test.

I expect our students to give 110% effort and if I expect this of them I must expect it of myself.  

The current mental challenge that I am encountering is fear based on the major heart surgery I went through less than a year ago.  Because of this, I have been put on blood thinners in perpetuity.  It is important for me to not hit my head, as well as my chest so that there is no chance my heart valve could move or a brain bleed develop. 

The current physical challenge I am working toward defeating is getting my body back to where it used to be and beyond.  For a period of 6-8 months, my body had minimal activity.  I lost large amounts of muscle mass, stamina, and flexibility.  All things considered I am just glad to be alive; however, I will strive to get back to, and surpass, my past physical abilities. 

After speaking with Shihan Nick Wilson, Shihan Chad Shepard, and Hanshi Dave Kovar at ProMac International 2019 in Denver Colorado, as well as Paul Castagno and Master Tom Callos, I was convinced the Satori Ryu Program through the Satori Alliance was how I wanted to go about earning my next rank.  

In my opinion, as an orphaned Instructor, it is important that my test is documented and beyond reproach.

I know that will be incredibly challenging, yet rewarding.  I plan on including my students, staff, fellow testers, and family to make this process as meaningful as it can be.

Very much looking forward to the process.  Constant updates and details will follow. Link to my Black Belt Portfolio: http://www.alexevers.com/black-belt.html

[alexander-evers]

It’s been a full month since Danielle and I got married!  Life has been great.  She’s all moved in and I finally live in a house that has furniture!  We took a week-long honeymoon to the Gulf of Mexico to relax but we’re back at it.  I’m so grateful to our friends and family for supporting us and coming to our wedding.  It was amazing and I’m looking very much forward to more adventures together.

[alexander-evers]

Check it out! I’m in a book! I finished my Ultimate Black Belt Test with Tom Callos approximately 4 years ago.  Just got this book this week.  It is amazing to think about how effective the UBBT was and still is.

Now back to working on Family Martial Arts, our new school in Enid!

[alexander-evers]

Small Business of the Year!

Thank you to everyone who has supported us on our journey to become Stillwater’s Small Business of the Year! It would not have been possible without all of our amazing staff and students working hard every day to be the best at what we do! Thank you so Stillwater Chamber of Commerce for all the hard work you’ve put into this event!

[alexander-evers]

Ending 2018 on a High Note

Today, December 31, 2018, also known as New Year's Eve, I proposed to the love of my life.  Danielle has stuck by me through thick and thin and I am so excited to spend the rest of my life with her. I decided to propose on our trip to Seattle to visit my brother and sister in law.  We had a packed day of touristy destinations.  However, the night before I decided on Pike’s Place Market.  A world renown farmers market place, famous for merchants throwing fish.  It’s right on the water and amazingly beautiful.  

The wedding is currently scheduled for May 11 at Sparrow Beginnings, I can’t wait.

https://www.theknot.com/us/danib_alexe

[alexander-evers]

What a year it has been...  I decided that I will try to write a year-end summary each year to remind myself of all of the awesome, crazy, sad, happy things that happened.

Friends and Family:

Tons of news with our friend group this year!  Taylor and Dustin got married, Dana and Justin got married, Lauren and Rudy got engaged, and Craig and Megan had their first child!  Danielle and I have started attending Country Side in addition to our intermittent attendance at UHBC.  We've also begun going to a fantastic small group on Thursday nights at Brad and Nikki Collier's house!

There have been many changes in our family this year as well.  Casey and Karina have officially moved to Washington!  They just purchased their first home and are remodeling.  This year I have also realized how blessed I am with my support system.  I am so thankful for all of my friends and family for helping me recover from all of the health issues this year.  Thank you so much for the food, for visiting me when I couldn't walk by myself, for picking up my slack when I wasn't around.  Thank you to my parents for putting me up in their home for a few weeks and for teaching me how medical care works.  Danielle has been a superstar.  I am so grateful for her support through all of this and for keeping me sane and inline. Jackson and Cooper have also been very loving.

On a sadder note, my grandma Helen passed away this year.  I miss her but I am glad for all of the memories and the great times we had together.

Health:

Earlier in the year, I had slipped a disk in my lower back.  As soon as physical therapy got me all patched up I had emergency open heart surgery.  Cardiac Rehab at Total Health has been an incredible blessing and I graduated from their program about two weeks ago.  I was also surprised when it was announced that my classmates from Leadership Stillwater Class 23 started a fundraising project to purchase an elliptical for the new Cardiac Center at Stillwater Medical Center!  The project was a success and I want to thank everyone involved.

Business:

This has been a year of growth.  I was fortunate enough to be asked to join the Board of Directors for the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce!  I spoke at One Million Cups, Graduated from Payne County Leadership, and hosted a great martial arts tournament which had participants from Perry and Enid.  Popup Dojo has continued to grow and has become more stable than ever.  We were fortunate enough to purchase the 824 S. Main Street building in Downtown Stillwater!  In addition to all of this, Justin Deal, Zach Taylor, and myself opened Family Martial Arts in Downtown Enid!  Thank you so much to Craig Nichols and Lauren Sneed for holding the fort down while I've been out, do to medical reasons and traveling to Enid! 

Community:

We completed two halftime shows during the men's and women's basketball games at OSU, and we're getting ready for this year's halftime shows in February!  We have continued to support Richmond Elementary School with their Ninja Math facts. I'm fortunate enough to be on the board for Big Brothers Big Sisters and our Big Night was a great success.  

A group of us in downtown Stillwater are working together to become more involved, create events, and get more people downtown.  We've started meeting twice a month instead of once and are looking into turning downtown into a Main Street Program.

Lastly, I am grateful to have been a part of the Teacher Walkout that we had this year.  We were fortunate enough to offer Teacher Walkout Camp at Stillwater Martial Arts, and I was lucky enough to be able to get down to the Capitol to support our teachers.

I'm positive I missed a lot of events that happened this year; however, this is a list for me to quickly summarize 2018 and its the best I could do in 20 minutes.

[alexander-evers]

Leadership Stillwater Class 23 has graciously decided to hold a fundraiser in my honor!  I am grateful to call them my finds and grateful for all of the kindness Stillwater has been showing me.

[alexander-evers]

Emergency Open Heart Surgery

2018 has been an exciting year for me medically.  As I'm typing this I am 6 weeks post emergency open heart surgery.  Which of course is not super common for a healthy active 27 year old.  

To tell the story correctly we'll have to go back to February 2018.  After work I noticed a bit of swelling in my right ankle along with a red/purple small bruise.  I figured keep an eye on it, rest, ice, elevation, compression.  When I wake up the next morning, my foot is still elevated, but it has gotten bigger.  I don't remember hurting it anywhere so I'm pretty confused. 

When I go to put my foot on the floor I feel all the blood in my leg rush down to my foot which causes some severe pain.  Enough that I decide to go to the walk in clinic.  After I explain what I know to the physicians assistant she contacts the doctor to come and look at it also. They put me in a wheel chair and take me to get x-rays and blood tests.  They explain to me they are unsure what the issue is, it is possible it's a sprain that I somehow don't remember, or much worse a joint infection in my ankle.  They explain to me I don't have a fever so it's probably not a joint infection but if my temperature rises above 100 or if it becomes so painful I can't walk, that I need to go to the ER.

Later that night my foot hurts like crazy anytime I put it below my heart and my fever rises above 100.  We go to the ER where I have more blood tests, a CAT scan, etc.  Eventually they determine they aren't really sure what the issue is either, but they set me up with an appointment with an orthopedist.

The orthopedist also isn't sure what is causing the issue so we decide to go with the shotgun approach of treating everything it can be.  I'm given a boot to immobilize my foot as well as antibiotics and steroids.  Over the next two weeks this strange issue with my foot subsides and everything goes back to normal like nothing ever happened.

April 7th.  This day is exciting as it is the move in day for the new Family Martial Arts studio in Enid!  We take a team down to Enid and unload all of our gear, mats, computer equipment, etc.  Unfortunately later that night as I stand up, getting off the couch, I feel the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life. I have this extreme pain in my back like I've never felt before, pain enough that I can't stop myself from screaming in pain.  I can't find any position for my body to alleviate this pain.  I try laying down, flipping over, sitting, standing, but I can't shake it.  I get the idea that heat might be the way to bring some sort of comfort.

I stagger to the bathtub, crawl in, and turn the hot water on.  This bring significant relief; however, I realize, while thinking long term, that I can't physically get out of the tub myself.  I call Danielle and ask her to come over.  She helps me out of the tub, my back is only in extreme pain now when I move.  So she helps me get to bed and we cross our fingers that I'm feeling better in the morning.  

Unfortunately, when morning rolls around I'm physically incapable of getting out of bed.  I'm feeling extreme shooting continuous pain if I even try to roll over.  Being slightly hard headed, I think that if I let it rest it'll get better.  Three days later, I haven't been able to move more than a few inches and the pain is just as bad as day one.  My parents say "Either we can put you in the back of the truck and drive you to the hospital or you can call 911."  

When the EMTs show up they explain how they have to pick me up and put me on the stretcher and once I'm in the ambulance I can get some pain relief.  When they pick me up it's excruciating, however, the morphine in the ambulance brings me the first sense of relief I've had in a while.  After blood tests and an MRI the doctor says he thinks I just pulled a muscle in my back and prescribes back stretches.  When I ask him how to stretch my back he replies with "You can just Google back stretches."

In the following week I am able to get out of bed with assistance as long as they don't mind my yelling, and can get around very slowly on crutches.  Towards the end of the week I get in to see my primary care doctor and explain that I can't live like this.  He looks at my MRI from the ER and says "You essentially have two fractured pars in your back and a slipped disk."  This brings me great joy that I have a diagnosis that I can work towards fixing and that my mind wasn't just making up the pain.

Fortunately he tells me that my slipped disk should be able to be fixed with physical therapy and hopefully surgery shouldn't be needed.  Over the next 6 weeks in physical therapy we work on physically pushing on my hips to pop my disk into place.  At first it wouldn't move at all, then it would move a bit but return to its place once the pressure stopped, eventually we were able to pop it into place!  Unfortunately it popped back out immediately, but it was a sign of progress.  After about a week of popping it in and out the disk finally stayed in place.  We then strengthened the muscles around it and I was told the fractures should heal, keeping it in place.

Weeks after my back pain has subsided I start to notice a pain in my left side whenever I take a deep breath.  This causes me to only take short breaths.  After two days or so I decide to go to my primary care doctor.  After a blood test he thinks I have an autoimmune disorder and refers me to a rheumatologist.  

I'm very pleased the rheumatologist is a great listener and doesn't mind me telling him the whole story of what has happened.  After another blood test, he tells me that I could have 0-4 autoimmune diseases and it's impossible at this point to tell which.  However, the treatment is fortunately the same.  He starts me on immunosuppressants.  The unfortunate thing about them is that they can take up to 3 months to take effect. During this period my breathing pain subsides after a week or two and instead I begin to feel a sharp shooting pain down my left leg (Sciatic Nerve).

It gets so bad I can't put any weight on my leg.  I'm relying on crutches and others to get me around.  

I'm hoping the doctor is right and its just a matter of time, but I also start chiropractic care because what else do I have to lose.  This leg pain begins to subside the end of June, which is getting close to the 3 month mark from when I started my medicine.

I'm so excited because our family has a planned vacation to California to visit our relatives at a family reunion!  I assumed I wouldn't be healthy enough to go, but my leg pain is going away and I'm starting to feel normal again!  The week before we leave I start getting these cold chills.  It's 100 degrees outside but I'm freezing.  This happens 2 or 3 times in the week leading up to our trip, it lasts for an hour or so before the chills go away but it hasn't been quite 3 months yet so I think the medicine hasn't quite gotten to full effect yet.  I call my primary care physician, just to be safe, and he says to call the rheumatologist, I call the rheumatologist but hes out of the country.  In my mind its really no big deal compared to the back and leg pain, I'll just keep taking my medicine and it'll eventually go away.  

The first day of vacation was great!  Went to the beach, visited relatives, etc. However, from day 2-6 I continue getting these weird chills and I start to notice my resting pulse will jump up for 10 minutes or so then dissipate back to my regular resting heart rate.  I just decide to stay in for most of the vacation because I'm generally not feeling good and not in the mood to enjoy the trip.  Towards the end of the trip we make the journey from Santa Cruz (elevation 36 feet) to Mammoth Lakes, CA (elevation  9,000 feet) for the family reunion.

Once we arrive we have to climb 3 flights of stairs to get to our room.  Once up there Danielle and I decide to stay in, instead of heading to the camp ground where my extended family is.  My heart is beating like crazy after the stairs but I assume if I relax eventually my body will keep up.  Around 2 hours later of sitting on the couch, I check my pulse.  It's 130-140.  I speak with my aunt who is a registered nurse and she convinces me to go to the ER.  It's Thursday evening.

We explain everything to the doctor at the ER and they decide to take some blood and run some sort of scan, my memory begins to get foggy at this point.  The doctor come back in the room after looking at the results.  He explains that they aren't sure exactly what is happening, but the blood tests have indicated there is something severely wrong with my heart.  So severe, that they can't treat it.  He explains that they have already contacted the airport to get me flown to Reno NV.  I recall the ambulance ride to the airport, being put into the plane, and even landing on the tarmac in Reno, but before I can get out of the plane it all goes black.  

I wake up in a hospital bed surrounded by my family.  They explain to me that it's Monday afternoon and that I've just undergone emergency open heart surgery.  I look down at my body and notice all of the wires and tubes.  They hold back the details at this point in time because they don't want to worry me, for the same reason I don't ask.

Here is what happened, as it has been told me.  Once I got to the hospital I received a flurry of tests.  It was determined that Strep was growing in my heart, this is called Endocarditis.  Because of this, the Strep had eaten through up my aortic valve and had also eaten a hole in the wall of my heart.  They also notice that I have a birth defect in my heart.  A normal aortic valve has three leaflets and I only have two.  To fix this they will implant a carbon fiber aortic valve to keep the pressure in my heart while it pumps. It isn't until five or six days later that I notice the audible ticking each time my heart beats.

Because of the hole and the valve my heart was trying to compensate for the lack of blood to my body by pumping faster and faster, this was the fast pulse rate I had experienced earlier.  As a result of these issues my lungs had filled up with a liter of fluid which caused me to have trouble getting oxygen to my brain, resulting in me passing out.

Fortunately for me the passing out was a blessing because I don't remember going through surgery, unfortunately for everyone else unconscious Alex wasn't having any of it.  Apparently I became extremely paranoid, to the point the doctors were concerned I would be pulling out IVs and be a risk to my own health.  For a period of time I had to be strapped down to the table.

Standard procedure in an endocarditis situation is to treat the infection, then have surgery to fix the damage.  The infectious disease doctor starts me on antibiotics but my fever continues to rise.  They put my body onto an ice blanket and cover me with one as well; however, after hours my fever hits 105.4.  Later its explained to me that brain damage usually occurs at 105.6.  The team of doctors decided either do the surgery now or it wont matter later.

Five hours into the surgery a nurse comes out of the operating room to tell my family that the surgery has gone well and they should be done in 20 minutes or so.  At hour seven the cardiothoracic surgeon comes out.  He explains that the initial surgery went well, they took me off bypass, restarted my heart, and were getting ready to call it a day.  Before they do that they do a TEE to make sure everything looks the way it should. During the TEE they notice that my mitral valve has also been chewed up.  The surgeon put me back on bypass and proceed to put it back together.

While waiting for me to become conscious again everyone is nervous that I potentially have brain damage or my personality will be completely different when I wake up.  Because we were 3-4 hours away from where our family reunion was meeting, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, everyone came by to see me.

After I finally regained my awareness we began physical therapy.  My nurses explained to me I needed to walk as much as possible.  Getting up the first time was very difficult and after taking just a few steps I was exhausted but it was progress.  The next day I made it to the door, the next day I made it through the door into the Cardiac ICU.  I was excited at the quick progress I was making, the nurses explained to me that I'm progressing much quicker than normal, but that it makes sense because I'm about 30-40 years younger than everyone else on the floor.   Walking is difficult because of the 4 chest tubes coming out of me along with the catheter, heart monitor, etc.  As the days move on they start removing things out of my body.  By day 12 in the ICU almost everything is removed besides the line that I'm supposed to use to get antibiotics to my heart for the next 4 weeks at home.  The doctors decide flying is the safest way for me to get home to avoid blood clots.  During the discharge paperwork the doctors let me know that I'll return to normal life within a year, but that I'll be on blood thinners the rest of my life.

Because of this they urge me to no longer participate in any contact sports, like sparring/grapplling/takedowns, which I'm still coming to grips with; however, it's still much better than the alternative.

I'm currently 6 weeks post surgery!  I have been cleared to drive and I started Cardiac Rehab at Total Health on Perkins.  I'm healing better than expected and some of my doctors think that all of my autoimmune symptoms were possibly a result of this over arching heart issue.  I also haven't had any autoimmune symptoms since surgery.  On Monday, Wednesday, Fridays I'm walking atleast a mile and riding 3-4 miles on the bike at Cardiac Rehab.

Craig and Lauren are breaking student count records at the karate school, and my parents let me move back in with them for a few weeks until I get back to normal.  Danielle has been incredibly supportive and drove me around everywhere before I could do so myself.

Around the beginning of the year I had a serious debate with myself about whether I should pay for health care this year.  It cost me a whopping $3,000.  I knew I should, but I didn't want to spend the money.  Well,  I'm extremely glad I did.  Also very glad I got the plan with 0 out of pocket cost once my deductible has been hit.  I still have bills coming in, but so far I'm up to around $400,000.

I am so thankful that God was and is always watching over me.  I'm counting my blessings everyday and I'm thankful for my quick recovery.  I’m grateful for my wonderful friends and family that have supported me the entire length of the journey.