Sunday... A great day!

It's a beautiful sunny day here in Everett, WA!  I am watching the Sea-hawks and the Redskins game and decided to write a bit. I have just finished publishing my 187 personal story on my website. You can read all the stories here.  You can also join the Aortic Dissection Forum and read stories as well as chat with other survivors. That link is found here.

I can't believe that Halloween is over and this week it's Thanksgiving already! Wow.. time is flying. Speaking of Halloween! My daughter was a candy corn princess and my son was a gangster. They always have so much fun trick or treating!

 We are having Thanksgiving at our house this year and I think there's going to be 16 people! Everyone brings something and we do the Turkey and drinks!

My tennis game is still in the toilet. I got my Prince Graphite 107's back and have been playing with them again, but just feel that my service return and serve are not that great! I am going to try the Mid size (93) and see how I like that. If not, I am eyeing either the Head Microgel Extreme Pro or Babolat Pure Storm Tour. My stringer should be there this week too!  You can see it here!

Have a great rest of the day!

Brian

Miracle Lady survives an AorticDissection

I got this alert from my Google notifications about a women who experienced and AD while giving birth to her child. It's a terrible outcome for the baby, but the mother survived and was able to keep going forward with her life.  The story is here and it's a great outcome for her. What's interesting is that they show a Type B dissection in the story, when it appears to actually be a type A, requiring emergency surgery. I actually agree with the doctor that there's few cases under the ages of 30, but... they are out there and I have documented them on my website as well. Those can be found here along with many other AD stories.

I feel so fortunate to be alive today thanks to Dr. James Brevig and the staff at Providence Everett General Hospital in Everett, WA. And, I am so thankful to the ER room for being able to catch it!

God Bless,

Brian Tinsley

My tennis game.. and stringing dilemma

Well, after playing with my Prince Oversize 107 rackets for 25 years, I have decided to switch.. Or did I? I ordered 3 new Head MicroGel Extreme Pro's and had leather grips put on them, but never gave them a chance as I was having issues with overheads and forehands. So, after selling my Prince's on ebay, I ordered 2 more Graphites, strung one, went to the wall, hit a few balls and realized that the HMP really were my new sticks. However, I had already sold them too! So, I had to ask the buyer to listen to my story and I gave him the funds back and have been watching my rackets travel to Arkansas and now are on the way back.

Next problem... I sold my stringer too! Then, I decided to get the new Top of the Line, LaserFibre Quantum. That's what I ordered last week and was told it would ship out this Friday, 11/7/08. However, that got shipped out yesterday and left my bank account in a negative situation. I contacted the LaserFibre folks and asked them what happened? I also asked for a refund of the shipping charges as it's the least that they can do for the screw up that they caused me!

Oh.. the game of tennis! :)

Brian

Back to work... Getting back into the swing of things!

Well, it's back to work for me.. finally, after being laid off on 5/2/2008, I landed my first day on the job with Global Crossing on 10/20/2008. I really like the company so far and the people are great! It's nice to be in a much smaller company than BIG BROTHER VERIZONBUSINESS. I am so happy to have a job at such a great place. The being out of the work realm was a bit tough to get back used to. I am still struggling a bit to try and stay focused. I am getting better and better each week. I also got my first paycheck and just in the nick of time!

I had my review of my Echo-Cardiogram that was done back in May/08 of this year. My doctor said that everything looked fine, still small leaking in the valves due to my "genetic" make up of a deformed bicuspid valve since birth. The nurse checked my BP and and it was 140/71. The my doctor checked it about 10 minutes later and it was 176/78. I told him that I was going to get my weight down from 212 to under 200lbs and that I would do it by Jan 1st, 2009. He said that I needed more BP meds and now I am going to be taking a pill at night. It sucks having high BP...it really does! I am on so many medications as it is, granted I take them about every 3 days on average, I need to get on the daily program - which I am going to do! I am also going to get my Excel weight charts and BP charts, put them on the bathroom walls and get focused about getting this BP thing down. We also discussed that I could go to 1 Echo per year and I told him about my CT/Angio's and how Dr. Liang thought going to MRI's would be less radiation for me. He seemed to agree. I also had a blood test for him to review and my hope is that my cholesterol is OK and I don't have to go on meds for that!

Take care!
Brian