Fund Raiser

Thanks, thanks, and thanks! What a fun night of celebration of friendship. The party was a success due to the organization of David Aguilar who coordinated the event bringing in my dear long time friend Nancy Miccoli who served up the delicious hor d'eurves and David Browning who provided the beverages, queso as well as the setting up and making our home look magical with flowers and finishing touches, and of course all of you who were able to attend.

I hope you enjoy a few photos from the great evening.

Contributions were made, which was difficult for me to accept when they started coming in, but then after a pep talk from John, he made me realize how much love all of you have for me and have made this whole ordeal of open heart surgery manageable which helped keep me focused on healing fully.

I'm looking forward to being back on track and living life fully once again and to continued nourishing friendships new and old with all of you who have made a huge impact on my life by once again helping me to realize how precious a life can be and how lucky I am to be alive to share it with you!

XOXO and Love and Light always! Jesse

Friends caring actions encourage abundance and wellbeing, which empowers healing, which inspires love, which opens the doors to prayers being answered

As per request here is the address that you may send contributions...

Jesse A Garcia
950 A. Kansas Street, San Francisco, CA 94107

Hello everyone,

I hope that you all had a great weekend.

I just wanted acknowledge David Aguilar and to let everyone know how much I appreciate the tremendous and unselfish task that he has put forth in organizing this cocktail party in my honor. Again it reaffirms just how blessed I am to have so many friends that care so much for me and my well being and how deeply it touches my heart to the ends of the universe and no not the old Universe that was on Townsend.

So many of you have already given me so much with your contributions of meals, cookies, lemonade, HAIRCUT, carting me around, listening to my aches and pains, comforting John and I with our current loss of our Dear Cody and through the recovery process of my open heart surgery, and for just blessings us with you presence.

How could anyone not be RICH after all that?! I am rich and full of love and beaming with Light that I feel like I could fly! And it's not just the painkillers talking...;-)

So please, do not to feel obligated to have to do anything more but to be here and let us all celebrate life, love and Each Other as we never know what lies around the next corner. Let's make this a celebration of life to honor one another. and let things unfold organically.

And if there are any suggestions for the fundraising effort, please let David Aguilar or John know. One friend suggested selling my GIft Certificates for future massages. I'll have some on had and others we can print out and send them to whomever you choose.

I'll have a rough copy of my Tight and FIt Workout Video for viewing and maybe we can do pre-sales if anyone is interested in purchasing one.

I feel a bit strange having a fund raiser but I also know that those who are able to attend the celebration is for you to. You need to know that you are our family and we treasure your friendship which are by far some of our greatest gift that we could ever have imagined. And who am I to slap God in the face when I pray for guidance and something is put into motion to answer those prayer.

My list of friends goes far and wide spanning the world over and will have received the Evite for the gathering. Obviously not all of you will be able to attend or perhaps many of you will be out of town, but you will all be here in spirit as I know who you are and why I've chosen you to be a part of this experience. Because you all enrich my life in ways that may be small and powerful, or ways that are large and empowering, others just are a beam of light that brightens my days others are just darn wonderful loving people that would walk the ends of the earth to support me.

The only reason that I know all this to be true it because I have that same love and honor and cherrish each and every one of you that fulfills the needs between us as friends to the end.

I Thank, thank, thank God for all of you. For helping me heal to the fullest making my doctors say in amazement, " Wow, you had your surgery when?

Hope to see many of you!

XOXO, Love and Light, Jesse

Mending a broken heart!

Hello everyone,

Many of you have already learned the news of John and I losing our dear dog Cody (John’s yellow Labrador) who has been in John's life for 13+ years. He was dealing with a worsening condition of arthritis in his hips and took a turn for the worse on Tuesday when he had barely been able to walk. We took him into the Vet on Wednesday morning and find out that he had pneumonia and with the reassurance from our Vet, who knew Cody very well, said that Cody would have a very difficult time recovering from this illness.

The look on Cody's face was one of being very tired of having to struggle to lift his own weight. After the vet gave us the prognosis, we all, our Vet, John and myself, decided that putting Cody to sleep would be in his best interest by not prolonging his discomfort of trying to coax his aging body into hanging on and most likely lose the battle of the illness.

John has been having a difficult time dealing with the loss but as we all know time will heal our hearts but that still doesn’t help that fact that losing a close member of our family or one of close circle of friends hurt and weighs heavy on our new and established hearts.

It’s amazing that Cody held on long enough for me to be stronger to be there for John. He brought lots of joy to all our family and friends who got the chance to know him more personally. Some of us bathed him, combed his coat, over fed him, cleaned up his poop, brushed his teeth, cleaned out his ears, carried him up and down our ridiculous amount of steps, took him for walks, took him swimming at the beach, did I mention clean up his poop? ;-)

He brought joy to everyone who knew him and he is greatly missed!

Rudy is sad and will miss his little big brother as well. He stayed downstairs with Cody the morning we took him to the Vet. Rudy has always been quite sensitive to those around him so hopefully you’ll appreciate the follow photos that we’ve taken of our little furry family members.

My health and heart continue to improve daily. I’m glad that my heart was strong enough to get through this sad chapter of our life, but as God would have it the timing was such that I could still be a source of strength to get through this and to be here for John to lean on as well.

Thanks for all your well wishes and for all the love and support that you all continue to give our family, furry and otherwise…;-).

XO and Love and Light, Jesse

Recovery Week 2-3.14.08

Thank you so much for all of you who have helped me with my recovery process. I could not have done it without you! If I've forgotten to mention you in this particular blog update I'm sorry. My memory is getting better but still slow. No Slower than normal...;-)

Thanks to John, My mother, My sister Punkin(Mary), who stayed here at home with John for a week while I was in the hospital, My sisters Gina and Margie, My niece Nena, who made life manageable for my first 2 day home, Cathy Clayton, Billy Polson for the loving care of a dear friend and for the fruit and the ride to my first follow up appointment to check my blood levels (Very important now that I'm on blood thinners for the rest of my life, to Tom Corvo for being here at last minutes notice, Mark Beyer for being a big help with my dogs Rudy and Cody, to Nicholas, Louis LaSalle and Kira Od who were great to take me out for a burrito and the park and to Kira for giving Rudy his much needed bath. To Brian and Dan for bringing a delicious dinner over the weekend and
to Marc, Steven and Graham for bringing dinner and good cheer. And to Gigi for always making me laugh and for braving taking me to Costco. I couldn't have enjoyed going there any more if I had gone with the whole Disney crew...;-). To Patti for bringing me some groceries after getting off work and for Billy Hayes for giving me a great book to read that he wrote "The Anatomist" which is getting great reviews and whose book was recognized by my surgeon when I went to see him on Wednesday telling me he had gone to his talk at UCSF the weeks before. and of course my thanks again to Kathy Clayton for taking me out for Sushi last night for my birthday. And I want to make sure to thank Tom Carlbert for the great birthday cake and to Kenny and Jim for bringing some delicious home made soup and lasagna. It was the best.

If I've forgotten anyone please forgive me. I look forward to seeing everyone in person again soon. Your blessings and well wishes mean the world to me.

XOXO, Jesse

P.S. I forgot to mention David Aguilar who has been in London on vacation but managed to come visit the first few days in the hospital and who is planning a get together on my behalf in a couple of weeks.

Thanks

March 10th, 2008

Well it's been one week since I've been home and feeling better but still having to move slow. I've been able to get out of the house for the past 3 days to go to the park with some friends with dogs in tow for some fresh air with loving caring friends, run some errands and go to lunch with my friend Louis. I even went to Costco with my dear friend Gigi.

I have to say that I could NOT have made it through without my friends. It's been really hard for me to be able to just surrender the caregiver in me to be allowed to be taken care of. It humbling to just say "I can't". Words that most of us no doubt fear ever having to say, but I'll say it again, "I can't, yet"... LOL. I know I'll get to the end of this long stretch soon enough.

I want to thank all my friends who have been there to help me, and John, get through this first week. I figure that i will have another week of feeling useless but will listen to all of you who keep me in line and tell me "Don't do that". I'm becoming a VVERY GOOD LISTENER...;-)

It's funny how much little things matter and make a big difference. Even if it doesn't seem like it's a big deal the little stuff does make me sweat for now and I'm grateful that you are all patient and understanding.

Rudy and Cody appreciate it too. They love going outside even if it's just to sit on the grass. If we could all just remember to enjoy those little luxuries and I believe we do catch on.

Now I've posted a snapshot of my newly revealed scar. I took the last of the bandages off tonight in the shower. It was kind of surreal as if pulling a veil off my eyes to realize once and for all that I've actually been through quite a traumatic ordeal. I made me cry for a couple of minutes just to know that I'm on the home stretch of being well on my way to recovery and healing from it all. Although I know the emotional scars will take a bit longer to deal with it's now anything that I won't not be able to overcome. Especially since I've been blessed with such a great support system in my family and friends for which I will always be and have always been grateful.

Now I'm in the mode of figuring out what line of fire to take to get my income jump started again until the time that I can get my regular flow going again with my massage business. I'm not going to jump at anything too fast but I figure now is a good time to start looking into getting my Workout Video finished and to search out editing jobs as a freelance Video editor. I thought that this is a great opportunity to get my website together and launched. Needless to say I've had a lot on my mind and things that I had to get off my chest that has kept me from moving full steam ahead with my own project of which I am very proud for having actually look really good. So stay tuned for the next chapter of life which I am again grateful to have you all a part of!

Thanks again for all you love, prayers of support and healing and most of all to those of you who were able to help while John was away and who continue to help while he is busy with work and just helping me to carry the slack for which I was accustomed to pulling while I had full capacity of my health.

Love and Light, Jesse

March 4th, 2008

Well I'm home for 24 hours now and it's a good day. It's my birthday. Wow 47 as of 20 minutes ago.

I am very grateful that my medical team helped me to find the problem with the valve and aneurysm and to have a great surgeon and the staff in such a well respected hospital!

My trip to the hospital was uneventful. I slept quite well the night before so I was as calm as a clam.

I went into surgery at 7:30 AM for what was supposed to be a 4-6 hour procedure. It actually took 9 1/2 hours. Excessive bleeding is what happened that isn't uncommon. that is why they ask if you want to let people you know donate blood. I'm A+ by the way. Which I didn't find out until the morning of surgery.

This is the thing. As a patient you're given all this pre-op literature to help you prepare for Major surgery. In the information they let you know that many people wake up after surgery they are confused and don't know where they are. The anesthesia makes you forget. So they tell you to have someone there in the room when you wake up in the recovery room after surgery to help you know all is okay. So I had my ducks all in a row. Great I was as prepared as anyone could have been.

After the surgery was over my doctor let John and my sister Punkin know that everything had gone well with the surgery and that I would probably just sleep through the night and told them that there was no reason to stay and should go ahead and go home.

But I did wake up.

I awakened @ 11PM. I opened my eyes and saw the clock on the wall in the intensive care unit. I looked around the room and didn't recognized anyone. They actually seemed a little surprised that I woke up but were ready to take care of me. I panicked a bit because I didn't know whether I was dead or alive. I knew I was having surgery but didn't get what to do. They were still working on my with a breathing tube down my throat. They talked to me for a bit reassuring me that all was well and that they were going to take the tube out of my throat. All I remember was how much my chest hurt. They gave me more pain medication.

They gave me the rundown on the IV in my arms and in my neck, what surgery I had just experienced and again that all went very well.

I asked where John was and they said he had gone home. I asked for my mother and they said no one was there that everyone had gone home. I started to cry. I needed to see someone I knew and loved.

So they called John but they didn't get an answer. I had them call my sister and my mother. They finally got a hold of my Mom in Gilroy. which is 80 miles away. She arrived at UCSF @ 1AM with my sisters Gina and Margie. I can't tell you how much it made a difference seeing someone you love and that loves you! I started to relax. My family left @ 3AM.

John and my sister arrived in ICU the next morning. Turns out that John and Punkin were so exhausted from the whole day of waiting that neither of them heard the phone call at home. It was around 11:30 PM remember.

I was being treated by my nurse Ron. (Picture 1- Go to bottom of Blog Page). In ICU they have 1 nurses per patient. Ron was amazing. He knew his work so well and made you feel at ease and comfortable in the most un-natural and most uncomfortable setting (Picture 2). He had a quick with and dry humour. He had my sister cracking up. He was an angel really. Anyone who can take someone doing a Linda Blair impersonation from the Exorsist when she throws up green pea soup... well I won't get into any more details! But John and Punkin were there to see my at my worst and don't think anything less of me because of it. Now that's LOVE!

For the recovery process they want you to walk ASAP after surgery so by morning I started walking. At least once around the ICU area. (Picture 3).

The rest of my stay at the hospital was great. All the nurses in the Heart and Vascular ward on the 10th Floor M were fantastic. Many of them beautiful women who didn't make you blush when they asked you, " Have you passed gas today?" They just want to make sure you starting to get you body going full throttle again.

I had hoped that I was going to be home by day 5 but my doctor wanted to make sure that my blood thinner levels were constant and needed 2 more days of monitoring. I don't think I would have been comfortable at home at that time anyway.

When I got transferred from ICU into a regular room on Wednesday I started to walk laps around the 10th floor. There was a 4 stair ramp to practice going up and down steps at the very end of the corridor. 15 laps equaled 1 mile not counting the stairs. I had made it my goal to be able to walk 1 mile before I went home.

It was hard to walk with my head up. It just made me too dizzy but on Friday I was able to do it and by both Saturday and Sunday I made my goal of 1 mile per day walked in 3 lap sessions spaced out throughout the day. I wanted to make sure that I had my strength built up before I got home and it worked

I am home now. I got home yesterday around 1:30PM feeling quite well. I had no trouble walking up the 3 floors of 32 stairs to get to our condo level. The rest of the day was good.

We had a great grilled chicken Cesar salad for dinner. It tasted great but because I wasn't really eating big meals in the hospital mainly because the food was awful boring and tasteless, I got indigestion.

So needless to say it was a rough night last night! Although it's great to finally be able to be back home I didn't realize how much the security of being in A HOSPITAL makes you feel.

Its amazing how being in the hospital with amenities like being in a bed that you know you can adjust with a push of a button, not having to dodge dogs and being able to just ring a bell if you needed help! You don't realize until you get home how much help the staff in the hospital is key to making sure that you do everything right. Now how your view of annoyance changes!


I had a fitful night. I couldn't make my self comfortable in our bed. My heart kept racing and beating against my chest that I wasn't sure if I could take it any longer. My back was aching terribly even with the 2 Percocets every 4 hours. I couldn't remember the discharge directions of symptoms to watch for signs that things weren't alright. I didn't know if I could stand the edge of the cliff too much longer.

But I did make through without any mishaps and now I'm doing well.

Today is a good day to have a birthday!

XOXO, Jesse