Yeah, it was about a year ago, surgery was August 4th 2023 so it is recent but I have had a solid recovery. I am at the gym doing weights, running around, honestly feeling better than I have in years. The suggestion from the cardiologist is I may have had a bicuspid or just dodgy valve and that made it more susceptible to infection, so I may have been running on borrowed time for years anyway. Still, I love my new valve, I take warfarin to manage clotting risk, and life is just generally better than before. It did force me to move on from my job delivering groceries and towards nursing, but that is not because of physical consequences, just a recognition of the finite nature of time.
Also, when I am in a quiet room I sound like a bomb from a cartoon, just tick tick tick, so that’s awesome.
Damn right! I loved the NHS when I lived in the UK. I broke my ankle when I was a kid over there, same deal, into the hospital, xrays, cast, etc, not a cent out of pocket for my family. I got a nice pair of crutches on load which I returned at the end and even got to try using a wheelchair when we went to Tesco because I stacked it (Aussie slang for fell over badly) on the way in on my crutches and they panicked, so yay for new experiences! Overall, 10/10 would recommend the NHS as of 1998, and the Australian Medicare system as of the rest of my experiences (2007, 2012, 2023) which resulted in hospitalisation.