Train Wreck

Posted 1/19/2009

I had my 3 month checkup at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale on the 7th, the doctor said all is well and he hoped not to see me again. Jane and I look forward to a prosperous and health new year, and we wish the same for all of you.

Thank you all.
Sean and Jane

-------------------------------------------------------------

Posted 12/10/2008

Well, I'm finally feeling better - the energy is up, the heart is well behaved, I'm working again and looking forward to playing out.

Thanks to everyone who sent their thoughts and energy my way! I couldn't have gone through this without you.

Happy holidays, and have a great new year.
Sean

-------------------------------------------------------------

Posted 11/3/2008

While I have just started to get back into work it's coming back much slower than I though it would, much slower than last time. None of the work I do would allow me to just show up and go through the motions - I actually need energy, focus and brain power, attributes that are not yet in my power to call up at will. It's getting there, but these things never go fast enough.

Unfortunately, we've realized that we need to cancel the gigs we had scheduled for November to allow for a bit more healing - we gave it our best effort on Halloween and it was painfully obvious that I just was not ready.

Thanks for all your support,

Sean

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted 10/1/2008

We're home from Phoenix and my heart surgery on Friday the 26th (postponed from the 24th, which was a quite stressful) was successful in terms of finding and addressing problems--we'll find out just how successful it was in fixing those problems over the next 3 months!

We got in Monday afternoon, both completely exhausted, and I am giving myself blood thinner shots twice a day (in the belly, not fun) and they make me nauseous and tired and generally feel like crap. As was expected the procedure has caused my heart to be temporarily more erratic, not less - this lasted a couple of weeks last time but can last as long as 3 months. With the blood thinners and the general anesthetic used in the surgery it will take a few weeks to feel better.The surgery was a bit more streamlined this go-around (compared to 3 years ago) so there was no need to stay any extra days this time. Very nice to be home in our own space.

All things considered I'm doing really well. I'm profoundly exhausted, my spirits are good, my whole body hurts (although the actual incisions are barely sore to the touch), I can't get out of my chair for more than a few minutes (unless it's to go lie down), I'm really glad to be through with the procedure and I look forward to feeling really good!

Thanks to everybody for all you have done and are still doing! We continue to receive contributions and support in many shapes & forms (from food to prayer and everything in between) and they are all welcome and much appreciated.

Thank you thank you thank you

Sean & Jane
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted 8/31/2008

Unfortunately, here we go again…

On September 24th, I’m going to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale for another heart surgery – a repeat of the procedure I had done 3 years ago. The procedure is a Pulmonary Vein Isolation (PVI), which is a catheter ablation procedure to correct my particular problem, atrial fibrillation. It’s not open-heart surgery (thank god) but it is a fairly long procedure (last time was about 6 ½ hours), and I’ll be under general anesthetic.

The last time we did this it worked really well for 2+ years, in hindsight I can see that my heart started to act up more seriously around the end of 2007 and has gradually gotten much worse. A visit with my surgeon last month confirmed what I suspected and dreaded – I need another ablation.

Once again the Mayo Clinic has agreed to cover the procedure (a $90,000 proposition), but a week in Phoenix and the 4 to 6 weeks out of work are going to put us in a precarious position. As many of you know I am self employed and Jane and I can’t afford insurance. Asking for help, especially money, is not the easiest thing to do but here we are…

I’ve set up a PayPal donate button below, we are grateful for any help anyone cares to give. We would like to offer a CD or DVD of your choice to anyone who donates to the “Friend’s of Sean’s Heart” drive.

Of course, if you prefer not to use PayPal you can always use the US Mail: Our mailing address is PO Box 5316, Bisbee, AZ 85603.

Whether or not you feel like donating, I would appreciate any and all thoughts, prayers, and good wishes you can muster on the morning of Wednesday, September 24th for both Jane and I as we make our way through this challenge.

Thank you.

Once you have clicked on the Donate button, let us know which CD you would like in the Options box. Be sure to give us your shipping address.

1 - Get Wrecked

2 - 2nd Story

3 - On The Radio Vol. 1

4 - On The Radio Vol. 2

5 - Blue Train

6 - Train Wreck DVD - Live at Tucson Blues Challenge