Most of my workouts were spent listening to the audiobook of The Last Lecture. I'm in awe of Randy Pausch as he documented his last few months before he died of pancreatic cancer. It hit me last night after a late dinner at Chin Chins with Howard, Roger, James, Phil and Ian why Randy's story grabbed me so hard.
While Randy's life was cut short, mine was never really supposed to begin. Randy was forced to cram life with his three children and wife into a few months. I've been given multiple overtime periods to play a game that should have already ended.
At 18 months I was in heart failure at Children's Hospital in DC. I was born with a ventricular septal defect. A "VSD" is basically a hole between two of the ventricals in my heart. In 1974, they didn't operate. You either got better or you didn't. I luckily got better.
The hole soon closed enough to be noticeable but not life threatening. Other than premedicating with antibiotics before dental exams and other medical procedures, I lived a normal life.
That was until I was 19 years old and was told by my cardiologist that the hole was expanding and that it had caused damage to my aortic valve. So in the summer between my sophomore and junior years at Northwestern, I had the first of my open heart surgeries to fix the VSD and repair my aortic valve.
Eight days later, the repair gave way and my valve burst. I was given a few hours to live (I'll save the details of how I spent that time for another post). With zero blood pressure, I was rushed to Georgetown hospital for an emergency valve replacement. A few hours later, I was the proud owner of a St. Judes #25 artificial aortic valve, and with it more time to live ... overtime as I now call it. My constant reminder is the crisp click, click, click that emanates from my chest cavity. If you stand close enough to me, you'll hear it.
So whether you have three months to live or weren't supposed to live at all, my question for you is how do you plan to live it? Taking some time to think about it may make your time left more meaningful. You also may gain some perspective that will put your toughest personal decisions in a different light. You don't need a cancer diagnosis or new heart valve to motivate you to live the life you want.
If you need some inspiration, please watch the following:
