I'm online again!

It’s been over three weeks since I’ve been back in the hospital and I’m still in a holding pattern as I await the IV antibiotics to do their thing in attacking the infection on my ascending aorta. One of my doctors said it would take at least 4 weeks for the medication to take effect, so I’m being a patient patient as I’ve got 3 more weeks of treatment. I'm feeling better every passing day and finally getting much more needed sleep. I'm walking 1 - 1 1 /2 miles each day and not feeling any tightness in my chest and no shortness of breath either. Throughout this process that started over 5 weeks ago, when I was first blindsided by the illness, I have managed to maintain a positive mindset, but it hasn’t been without some challenging moments. From the onset of being admitted into UCSF Medical Center and being told that the IV medical treatment would take 6 weeks minimum for it to take affect. If the antibiotics weren't able to clear the infection completely it would have to be surgically removed which also means having open heart surgery to replace the infected aortic root and aortic valve and replacing it with the same materials that I had originally replaced on my first open heart surgery in 2008. I had it in my mind that I would be in the hospital for the 6 weeks duration of the IV treatment. But I didn’t foresee that I’d have to convince two of the three teams to take a more positive look at the treatment. You see the infection is on my aortic root on artificial mesh tubing, which doesn’t get regular blood flow making it a bit more difficult to treat. So the cardiac medical and the infectious disease teams are just going by the text books, which tell them that surgery is the only way to go leaving them narrow sighted in seeing me as an individual. What they failed to remember is that in their text book guidelines is also says that when there is a case that doesn’t entirely fit inside those guideline it should be treated on that individuals case. It’s been a blessing to have my cardiac surgeon leading the fight to get me as healthy as can be and to search out options that warrant treating me on the merits of progress that my body has presented. He affirmed my feelings that it might take some time but it is possible as there have been 10% cases that were effectively treated by antibiotic therapy. But one thing that makes it particularly challenging is that this is a teaching hospital so there are rotations of team members and team leaders meaning that I have total strangers taking over my case weekly. I have to start almost from scratch to get these people to see me as a patient that they most likely have never had the privilege of working with. Doctors have told me that they don’t have the occurrence of their patients even understanding what the illness is that they are dealing with nor did they want to know. I have to work hard to keep myself focused on the task at hand of seeing the infection shrinking on a daily basis. I know how powerful the mind can be, and by putting plenty of faith in Gods hands, as he makes miracles happen, and also knowing that giving it time the medicine will do what it was intended for, it’s a formula for complete healing!Here is a photo of the scan of the infections. It's just above my heart on the ascending aorta.

I have a crystal clear vision of where my health is going and nothing will veer me from it even though time and time again I am confronted with it. It’s that same discouragement that we encountered when we were growing up with people saying, “Oh you could never do that”, or “Why waste time on something that will never happen”. What I have to say to that is had I listened to those voices of negativity and discouragement I would never have accomplished many of the major pleasures in my life however trivial that may seem. Like being Drum Major of our high school marching band my senior year, “They’ll never pick a senior to that position”; or my 16 years as a professional dancer. “You can’t dance”, “You’ll never be good enough”; or my title as Mr. America master bodybuilding champion, “You’re not big enough”; or when in 1990 being told, “You’ve got maybe a year to live”, and walking out of the doctor’s office; and then the doozy, “We don’t know what’s wrong with you, we don’t know how to treat your illness”, being sent home to die and here I am alive today to write this blog! Ha, I did all that and then some. I visualize the white blood cells going after the infection aggressively by piggy backing on each other to get to that hard to reach areas of the infection. If you've never seen white blood cells chase after bacteria here is the link for a YouTube 60 second video showing it in action. The body is an amazing creation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_mXDvZQ6dU So you see, the power of God, the power of the mind, and the power of Love has the ability to move mountains. As the course in Miracles states, “There is no order of difficulty in Miracles”. Focused attention in meditation and prayer we can overcome all obstacles. Life is good, life is strong and the lifeblood of Christ flows freely in my arteries and veins bringing healing, wholeness, and perfect health in my body, heart, and soul. And so it is! Amen. Thanks for letting me share with you and thanks for your love, well wishes, and positive healing energy sent to me over the etheric airwaves from around the world! Until the next update, Love and Light always, Jesse