Life is good

I don’t even know how to start this and I don’t want to make this a sob story or anyone feeling bad. I joined JI mostly cause my brother waay back then in 08’ 09’. It was great, lotta laughs and overall great community. I got married in 2010 and things were great for a couple of years. I got diagnosed with Afib in my late 20’s. It was a bad hand dealt to me, nobody could tell me why. I’ve always been an athlete, worked out regularly, never took drugs. My quality of life was terrible just feeling lousy all the time. I got an ablation done and although it didn’t fully work, it was much better and things were good again. Then my wife and I tried having kids. My wife suffered from infertility and it really messed her up bad. We went through 6 cycles of IVF, repeated IUI’s, 6 miscarriages and $70,000 later. It was the worst experience of our lives for 6 years. I had to watch her every day crying, injecting her with meds, countless doctors visits, god awful Chinese herbal medicine, we tried EVERYTHING. It nearly broke us. Our very last shot, with a lot of help. It finally happened. My wife stayed pregnant for the first trimester. Finally, told our parents and friends and life was good again. I started feeling lousy again and the doc put me on meds. It helped, and I was nearly free of any episodes. Then unexpectedly, my mom passed away at 66. Devastated was not the word as my mom was my hero. My parents moved back to retire in Greece so she passed there. It was in the middle of a blizzard we got hit with and took 3 days to get a flight. My dad remained in Greece living there to this day. My little girl was born a short time later to which I was instantly in love, bonded with immediately. She looks exactly like my mom, so it gave me a sense of peace. Then my aunt (my mom’s sister) who was like my sister got diagnosed with brain cancer. She died a short while later, and my grandmother who lost both her children died 2 months later. My brother and I stopped talking for whatever reason and he was lost to me. I had nobody except my wife and daughter. Then one day I went to work, on the verge of a promotion, I went to a supervisor class. I was supposed to be home with my daughter but I got reassigned. I walked upstairs and on the last step I felt my heart racing out of control, sat down and my heart stopped. I went into cardiac arrest and died right then and there. A recruit found me on the landing called for everybody. Did CPR and used a defibrillator to revive me. I was still in rough shape and they continued CPR to the hospital. They didn’t know how long I’d been out so they didn’t know if I had brain damage and put me on ice and in a coma for 3 days. They woke me up and I eventually came to. I barely remembered anything except the moment my incident happened. I don’t remember my brother being there but he was, and never spoke with him again. the medicine the doctor put me on was only supposed to be for a short time. I took it for a year and a half and it put me in cardiac arrest. I went back to work in only a month, full duty 2 months later and got that promotion. I was feeling lousy again and decided to a hybrid ablation that worked beautifully. I’ve been free in clear for 4 years now, feeling great. My wife and I got pregnant again with my boy with some help again. Then Covid hit, my son was born in the height of it and of course that messed all of us up. After Covid, my wife was diagnosed with pre cancerous cells in her breasts and sent her home with pamphlets. Again, devastated and unsure of her future, she got a breast reduction that significantly reduced her chances. 3 months later she tore her knee up, leaving me to deal with a full time job and taking care of the kids with barely any help. My wife had surgery on her knee that took a while for her to get normal. We are finally, in a good place with our family and life is good.

I’m sorry to post something like this on here. My point being that a portion of 10 years, there was a ton of darkness in my life. I pushed through it with my wife, who has been my rock, to find that light again. It was incredibly hard and I pretty much lost a good portion my 30’s. Keep pushing to find that light. Life IS good, don’t let yourself be consumed by the darkness. Spend whatever time you have to the fullest, be happy as corny as it sounds. You never know when your last day is going to be. Spend your time with your family or loved ones. JI was great and I’m glad I found you guys. I’ve been lurking for a long time just have never felt like posting anything. Much love to everyone on here.