My Story

What is CHD

D-TGA Mustard Correction

CHD is congenital heart disease, basically I was born with a heart defect. I had surgery when I was eleven months old, to "repair" the defect. The defect is known as Transposition of The Great Arteries or TGA. The surgery was called a Mustard repair. Basically when I was born the blood was not properly flowing through my heart. The entered from my lungs and returned to my lungs without sending oxygenated blood to the rest of my body, Luckily I also had a VSD (Ventricle Septal Defect) or a hole in the bottom chambers of my heart which allowed me to get some oxygenated blood. Because of that I wasn't completely blue when I was born. Back then they didn't have the technology they have now, so they had to wait for my heart to be large enough to do surgery. The surgery went well, luckily well enough to allow me to play sports as a child and lead a fairly normal active life.

Me at Pop Warner football

Football

Look at that hair, lol. I played youth baseball, water polo, was on a swim team and played football. Football was by far my favorite sport. I was hurt when I got to high school and my cardiologist said I could no longer play sports. Mt father was able to convince a high school to allow me to coach. So, my sophomore year of high school I started coaching freshman football.

Me on the St. Laurence coaching staff

Coaching

Coaching football I think helped me stay healthy. I was running drills with the kids. Staying active in the off season, including my second love of swimming. I coached football for over twenty years. I made some great connections with other coaches and watched some kids grow into great young men. I recently retired from coaching to follow my next dream, long distance motorcycle trips.

The day I bought Scarlet

Motorcycle

Can you tell I went straight from work to pick it up? I named her Scarlet, like the Scarlet Witch from Marvel. I always liked motorcycles, don't know why I waited until I was 43 to learn how to ride one. I was nervous in class, you don't heal as fast at that age, lol. Learning to ride was a great idea and crashing on Lake Shore Drive was a great learning experience. I had an amazing trip on the bike, and you will find info about it in this site.