Opening Presents

Here I am opening presents at home with my wife today on Christmas Day. I really like this photo, taken by my wife, for different reasons.

1. I am happy that I am home for Christmas with my wonderful wife, surrounded by decorations and listening to my favorite Christmas album on YouTube on TV.

2. I also like that some of the results of my two surgeries last month can be seen in the photo. I wasn't sure if I would be home for Christmas from the physical rehabilitation facility.

November 4, 2025: artery bypass surgery (3-foot-long blockage in main artery in my left leg; removal of 3-foot-long vein in my right leg to be inserted within my left leg to bypass my blocked artery) ... You can see the epic incision scar in my right leg; it goes from my hip to my ankle and required 70 metal staples. I had 26 staples in my left leg: 16 in my upper thigh and 10 in my lower calf near my ankle. Total: 96 staples.

November 8, 2025: left foot surgery (part of 3rd and 4th toes of left foot amputated due to artery blockage) ... You can see my bandaged foot.

I returned home on December 13, 2025, from more than six weeks at the hospital and at my physical rehabilitation facility. I was receiving four bags of powerful intravenous antibiotics every day during a six-week-long daily regimen for a bone infection in the big toe of my left foot. I was also engaging in occupational therapy and physical therapy at rehab.

I have endured this six-week-long intravenous antibiotics regimen many times in recent years for bone infections and skin infections in both of my feet and legs.

I am grateful, thankful, lucky, fortunate, and blessed to be still alive. Between March 2022 and November 2025, I endured eight surgeries: 1 heart, 2 chest, 2 spine, 1 right ankle, and, last month, 1 legs, and 1 left foot.

Happy Christmas !!! 🎄 It is especially happy for me, as well as for my wife and for my mom.

December 25, 2025, at home